Post Summer Days

Well, it has been a fantastic 2008 season for 7-on-7 football in Arkansas. Here are just a few highlights:

• The Lake Hamilton Wolves, led by QB Phillip Butterfield, took two-thirds of the Arkansas Triple Crown (the Sonic Air Raid and the Shootout of the South).
• Watson Chapel, LR Christian, and Searcy put in good showings at the Sonic Air Raid.
• Rogers, Shiloh Christian, Hot Springs Lakeside, and Fayetteville all performed well during pool play of the Shootout of the South.
• The inaugural VYPE Select 7-on-7 Tournament on the campus of the University of Arkansas was an excellent event.
• The Pulaski Academy Bruins (with standouts Spencer Keith and Neal Barlow) showed that they can compete with the elite teams in the state as they took home that title.
• Smaller schools put on some fantastic tournaments.
• Hoxie hosted 14 teams at its first tournament.
• Gravette hosted 8 teams for its 2nd annual event.
• Fountain Lake also hosted 14 teams in the 13th edition of the state's longest running 7-on-7 tournament.
• Four teams from Arkansas (Shiloh Christian, Springdale, Springdale Har-Ber, and Lake Hamilton) competed in the Select 7-on-7 National Championship tournament.
• Springdale Har-Ber brought the National Championship back to the Natural State once again.

We realize that the focus will now shift to "real" football, but we will have some things to check out during the high school season. Here is what we plan to provide you until 7-on-7 returns next summer:

1. More installments in the "Why 7-on-7?" series.
2. A new "Coaches Corner" section where we discuss the teaching opportunities presented during these 7-on-7 competitions.
3. In our "Shootout of the Week" series, we will pick the game that we feel will be highest scoring high school football game.

So, we suggest that if you want to know when we put something new up, use the "Subscribe" button below the "Sponsored Links" to the left. If you have never used an RSS feed reader, the Google reader is pretty awesome. Let us know in the comments (or at ArkansasFootballBloggers@gmail.com) if you need an invitation for a Google account.

We wanted to take a couple of seconds to thank all of you that stopped by over the past three months. Here is how we have grown since starting back in May:

• May 2008: 1,570 page views
• June 2008: 3,655 page views
• July 2008: 5,193 page views

Finally, if you have ideas, suggestions, or comments, PLEASE let us know in the comments or through our email (ArkansasFootballBloggers@gmail.com). We want to provide you with information that you want when you stop by to catch up on Arkansas football (7-on-7 or otherwise). Coaches and players, as the next season approaches, send us your schedules, tournament plans, and players to watch. We will get them posted so that as many people as possible can make it to your events and increase the exposure for your outstanding players to a wider audience. Again, THANK YOU! for a great summer of 2008 season.