Southwest Elite Begins Today

One of the top 7-on-7 tournaments begins today at Shiloh Christian with 15 teams vying for the Southwest Elite 7-on-7 Championship.  This is one of the premiere tournaments in Arkansas and will pit some of the top 7-on-7 teams and players against one another.

Arkansas teams that will be competing will be Shiloh Christian, Bentonville, El Dorado, Fayetteville, CAC, Greene County Tech, Rogers Heritage, Mayflower, Springdale, and Arkansas Baptist.  Shiloh and Fayetteville are the likely favorites, followed closely by El Dorado and Rogers Heritage.  All four of those teams were in the top 8 at the Shootout of the South three weeks ago.

Out of state teams include Olive Branch (MS), Heritage Hall (OK City), McAlister (OK), Muskogee (OK), and Hillcrest (Springfield, MO).  Arkansas Football Bloggers can only speak about Heritage Hall as we are unfamiliar with the other out of state teams.  Heritage Hall boasts two great athletes in wide receiver Sterling Sheppard, who was one of the top receivers at the Shootout of the South, and cornerback Barry Sanders, Jr, son of former Detroit Lions running back, Barry Sanders.  Although they will be very good, we don't think they can run the table to defeat the top level teams like Fayetteville and Shiloh.

The 16 teams (Bentonville will have two teams) will divide into 2 pools of 8.  They will play 4 pool play games on Friday beginning at 2:00 with the last games slated for 5:30.  They will then return on Saturday to play 3 pool play games from 9:00 to noon, then breaking for lunch.  When they return, the single elimination tournament will begin at 1:15.

Here are the pools:

POOL A
Arkansas Baptist
Bentonville
Shiloh Christian
Olive Branch
Hillcrest
Mayflower
Heritage
Heritage Hall

POOL B
Springdale
El Dorado
Muskogee
Bentonville 2
Fayetteville
CAC
McAlester
GCT

More information and schedules can be found on the tournaments website: http://www.elite7on7.com.