By David Berry Published 12:26 pm, Wednesday, June 25, 2014
A chance to win a state championship was only part of the motivation.
The Port Neches-Groves 7-on-7 team is the only one from Southeast Texas to advance to the 2014 Texas 7-on-7 Championships being held in College Station on the second weekend in July.
The chance to win a state championship is more than enough to entice the players, but they were also motivated by what they will receive as reward for simply qualifying, free gear.
Adidas is the official sponsor of the Texas 7-on-7 Championships and provides each team participating with their official tournament uniform along with other free apparel.
“We kind of made a big joke about it,” PN-G senior linebacker
Michael Hughes said. “That’s the way we picked each other up and that’s what we rallied around. That’s why we wanted to win, we wanted to get the free stuff to look cool.”
PN-G qualified for the tournament as a Division I team. The state tournament is split into two divisions, Division I having predominantly 6A and 5A schools. The official dates or the Division I tournament are July 11-12.
“It’s a real honor,” Hughes said. “7-on-7 in general is real fun. You go out there with your friends you’ve been working hard with all off-season and summer. You get to show your skills. To compete and actually advance, that’s what’s really fun.”
The Indians qualified for the state tournament through a series of State Qualifying Tournaments, the last one being at Cypress Falls in Houston. PN-G went 3-1 in that SQT, defeating Spring Westfield, Jersey Village and Cy-Fair with the lone loss coming to Cy-Creek. The 28-25 win over Jersey Village meant that PN-G was in the top two at the SQT and thus qualified for the state tournament along with Klein Collins.
Collins and PN-G decided not to play the championship game since both teams qualified and just flipped a coin to determine the winner.
The free Adidas apparel certainly played a large motivating factor, but having fun with teammates and continuing to learn the playbook are other factors that have made the run to the state tournament so fun.
“We play around and we joke around but it’s up to an extent,” senior running back Brant Halfin said. “We work hard for what we’ve got. It wasn’t all just given to us. We want to go to state and we want to be one of the best.”
Senior Ky Walker, who is competing with junior Adam Morse for the starting quarterback job, realizes that this is a very special moment for the team.
“A lot of teams go, but not many from (Southeast Texas),” Walker said. “I guess when you compare it to the number of teams that try, only a select few get to go.”
With all the 7-on-7 success from this spring and summer, PN-G hopes to continue that success into the fall season when the pads are put on.
