We now have two practices completed and three more to go before our first State Qualifying Tournament 4/28. We were much better in the 2nd practice as we began to get used to playing again. We have a long way to go to be ready for an SQT but that is to be expected. We have a couple of injuries we are dealing with but nothing too serious.
The next few practices we will have to pick up our tempo on both sides of the ball. Some of the younger players have shown that varsity 7 on 7 is "not too big for them" and we expect to get some real help from our to-be sophomores.
Just before our first SQT the kids will start spring football. We will still practice 7 on 7 on Saturdays so we are ready for SQT # 2 on 5/26. As we go about the business of trying to qualify for a state record 21st season in a row we have to keep the mindset that this is never easy; that this is a new year and this team has NEVER qualified before.
VFND!
Coach Poynter
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Thursday, March 22, 2018
2018 SEASON ABOUT TO BEGIN!
As I reflect back on the past 17 seasons of Lamar Viking 7 on 7 I cannot help but feel pride and frankly some amazement at what the "Lamar Nation" has accomplished through all the hard work put in by the players, parents, coaches, fans and sponsors to create this "one of a kind" program.
Texas is a big state. Any time you are one of the very best at something out of some 1400 high schools on a consistent basis, you are demonstrating your willingness to "put it out there" each season. I expect nothing less than this same concerted effort out of all the stakeholders this season starting with our players and coaching staff. We do not "hide" from the streak of qualifying 20 years in a row. We embrace it; we talk about it and we are committed to not letting it end on "our watch".
So, even though it is not yet "our season" we start the journey this Saturday March 24th with our first practice. We are going to hit the field passing, catching, defending and coaching like it means something to us-BECAUSE IT DOES.
VFND
Coach Jim Poynter
Friday, July 7, 2017
THOUGHTS FROM THE STATE TOURNAMENT AND ON THE SEASON
The State Tournament Board of Directors tries to put teams from around the state in each pool to provide the players a chance to compete against teams that they might not normally see in competition 7 on 7 or in football. It is a "random" drawing so some years the pool is more competitive than others recognizing that ALL of the teams where good enough to qualify along the way. It is important to recognize that just "getting there" is a real accomplishment. Teams like Southlake, Austin Westlake and Arlington's own Martin and Bowie high schools tried but did not succeed in qualifying this season. This year Lamar was placed in a pool with San Antonio Oconnor (SA area), Hutto (Austin Area) and Manvel (Houston area). All three of these teams had a player that was selected as the Pre-Season District POY on either offense or defense. There were a number of Division 1 recruits on these teams, particularly on the Manvel team. So we knew we had our work cut out for us!
We played about as well as we can play for the first half of the Hutto game opening up a 34-13 lead. They fought back and made it closer but we stayed ahead the whole game. In the 2nd game against SAC we played a complete game and won by 17. So going into the 3rd game 2-0 we knew we had accomplished our goal of making it into the championship bracket on Saturday as we could finish no worse than 2-1 or 2nd in the pool. Whether it was that knowledge or the heat or a combination thereof we "ran out of gas" in the Manvel game and were beaten pretty soundly. Still 2-1 in this pool was a good day's work!
To give you some further evidence of the talent we played against Friday, on Saturday Hutto and SAC played in the consolation bracket tournament. In many ways this is a hard thing to do because you are really playing for pride as you cannot win the 7 on 7 state championship. This 32 team tournament requires winning 4 games in a row on Saturday to get to the finals. Well guess who wins 4 games each? That's right Hutto beat SAC in the consolation finals! What this tells me is those kids are mentally tough and have a lot of pride. Our first game on Saturday was against Waxahatchie. We beat them 28-26 to qualify earlier in the year so we knew they were a very good team. They played at another level during the state tournament, beating us and three more excellent teams to reach the State Finals. They lost a heartbreaker, going for two points at the end and missing to lose to Lake Travis by one point. So literally 3 of the teams we played last week made it to the final 4 spots!
Although going out early on Saturday is tough it does help to know you were playing and competing against other quality teams. The 2017 edition of the Viking 7 on 7 had an outstanding year finishing 17-6. They competed hard; love each other and are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to be a good team in the summer and now I am sure they will do the same in the fall.
Super job again this season by our assistant coaches all of whom were Vikings.
THANKS FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE YOUR COACHES AND CONGRATS AGAIN ON JOINING THE "ALWAYS QUALIFIED CLUB" VFND AND "20/20"
Jim Poynter
Monday, June 26, 2017
STATE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK
After several months of practices and competing in 6 state qualifying events the 15-4 Vikings are now preparing for our road trip to College Station. This is the 20th year of the Texas State 7 on 7 Championship and as everyone knows this is our 20th straight appearance.
What is not as well known is our record in advancing from 4-team pool play on Friday to the Championship Bracket (round of 32) on Saturday over that period of time. Only 3 times in 19 years have the Vikes failed to advance to the championship bracket. That means we either finished 1st or 2nd in pool play 16/19 seasons! All of the teams that make it to College Station are talented so this record of advancing 84% of the time truly shows Viking excellence over time.
We have our work cut out for us in our Pool "draw" this year. As we always preach to the kids though, it is mostly about how we perform. If we play as we are capable of there is no reason this group cannot make it 17/20. It is a tough 3 game stretch in the peak heat of the day on Friday every year. We believe that our preparation (19 games in the regular season) and our practice preparation this week will give us a chance to compete at our best.
What is not as well known is our record in advancing from 4-team pool play on Friday to the Championship Bracket (round of 32) on Saturday over that period of time. Only 3 times in 19 years have the Vikes failed to advance to the championship bracket. That means we either finished 1st or 2nd in pool play 16/19 seasons! All of the teams that make it to College Station are talented so this record of advancing 84% of the time truly shows Viking excellence over time.
We have our work cut out for us in our Pool "draw" this year. As we always preach to the kids though, it is mostly about how we perform. If we play as we are capable of there is no reason this group cannot make it 17/20. It is a tough 3 game stretch in the peak heat of the day on Friday every year. We believe that our preparation (19 games in the regular season) and our practice preparation this week will give us a chance to compete at our best.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
RECAP OF 6TH AND FINAL SQT OF 2017
On a very hot/muggy Friday the Vikes went to Rowlett HS and took care of business winning all three pool games. Several items of note from yesterday:
- Continued to play aggressive on defense. Had several interceptions including another pick 6 by Deshawn Gaddie. I don't know what our season record for pick 6's is by I am pretty certain DG owns it by now. We got our hands on a lot of other balls that we need to reel in next week at State.
- Spread the ball around nicely on offense today. We have a deep receiver corps and it puts stress on other teams to figure us out as we can throw it to anyone at any time.
- Had a tremendous come from behind OT win over a very athletic Mesquite North team. We showed great poise as we were behind the whole game and we made the plays that had to be made to win.
We had a great "moment" today bonding with a team from deep south Texas. Rather than repeating the story here please go to our lamar Vikings 7on7 FB page; its worth the read...
For the regular season we went 15-4. No team played in more SQT games this year as we played in the maximum number allowed. This amount of competition will hopefully serve us well next week. We will have our state pool games announced Sunday evening and I will post them here. Attached is a picture with most of our senior players after the tournament (two others were taking care of summer school and so we will need to shoot another picture with them too). Great job guys!
Monday, June 19, 2017
SQT #5 -THE WORK CONTINUES...
Last Saturday the Vikes went back to Pennington Field in Bedford for the 2nd time this season and for the second time went 2-1 in pool play. As part of our preparations for State we continued to use all 20 players including rotating our QB's so as to get playing time for everyone and a look at different combinations of players on offense and defense.
This continues to be a "ball hawking" group on Defense. While we had a number of actual interceptions, we can very close to DOUBLING that number with other balls we should have caught. In game #1 against Rockwall Heath we had two int's, one by Califah Garr and a "pick six" by Jaylen Nobles. In Game # 2 James Douglas, Jaylen Nobles, Joe Vaughn and Jack Dawson each had a pick. Four interceptions in a game is outstanding and we averaged two per game.
Offensively we struggled at times and at other times played well. The energy by our receivers was good in all three games. We forced too many throws into coverage and will have to eliminate our own interceptions before the state tournament. Our percentage of extra points completed is still not where it needs to be.
We averaged 29 points per game on offense which is about 14 points below where we need to be. Defensively we allowed just 53 points in total or 18 points per game. We need to hold teams below 28 ppg to be successful at the State Tournament. Our record for the season is 12-4.
We play on FRIDAY this week at the Rowlett SQT. We will continue to rotate players through Friday. We will practice twice next week prior to departing for College Station. These will be two important practices as we finalize our preparations for State.
This continues to be a "ball hawking" group on Defense. While we had a number of actual interceptions, we can very close to DOUBLING that number with other balls we should have caught. In game #1 against Rockwall Heath we had two int's, one by Califah Garr and a "pick six" by Jaylen Nobles. In Game # 2 James Douglas, Jaylen Nobles, Joe Vaughn and Jack Dawson each had a pick. Four interceptions in a game is outstanding and we averaged two per game.
Offensively we struggled at times and at other times played well. The energy by our receivers was good in all three games. We forced too many throws into coverage and will have to eliminate our own interceptions before the state tournament. Our percentage of extra points completed is still not where it needs to be.
We averaged 29 points per game on offense which is about 14 points below where we need to be. Defensively we allowed just 53 points in total or 18 points per game. We need to hold teams below 28 ppg to be successful at the State Tournament. Our record for the season is 12-4.
We play on FRIDAY this week at the Rowlett SQT. We will continue to rotate players through Friday. We will practice twice next week prior to departing for College Station. These will be two important practices as we finalize our preparations for State.
Monday, June 12, 2017
VIKINGS COMPETE IN SQT NO. 4 LAST SATURDAY-SOME THOUGHTS
NORTHWEST SQT RESULTS
Game 1: Lamar 28 Lake Dallas 35
Game 2: Lamar 45 Joshua 12
Game 3: Lamar 48 Brewer 47 (OT)
Viking Season: 10-3
On a windy day at Eaton HS the Vikes got some good work in and we coaches learned some things particuarly about some of our younger players. Once a team is qualified for the State Tournament (which we did at the 2nd SQT) there is a natural tendency to "left off the gas". The 7 on 7 coaches work very hard to make the players understand that as a team we are paying $300 per tournament to get real games against other teams with refs and travel for a reason. That reason is to get better and hopefully peak right around the end of June for the State Tournament (6/30-7/1).
These extra tournaments post qualifying give us a chance to look at different players in different combinations so we can find the right mix for the state tournament. After Saturday, in consultation with Coach DeLay and his staff, we have selected the final 20 team members for State (subject of course to injury or other factors). The hard part for us as coaches is that every year getting to 20 (state rule) means we must leave 1-4 players off that roster that have contributed and are capable of playing at the varsity level. We will encourage those players to keep coming to practice AND to try to help the Viking JV team get qualified for the "Prime Time" state tournament. We will now take those 20 players to the final two SQT's so we get used to playing as units and playing fast. Our next tournament is in HEB this Saturday (6/17) and I will post on the web site front page under the PDF tab the specifics as soon as it is released.
Kids are working hard and we are getting better. The next two weeks are key to our growth as a team. NEED EVERYONE AT PRACTICE THE NEXT TWO TUESDAYS AT 6:30 PM AT CRAVENS. TEAM PICTURE IS THIS TUESDAY AT 6:30 PM.
VFND!
Jim Poynter
Game 1: Lamar 28 Lake Dallas 35
Game 2: Lamar 45 Joshua 12
Game 3: Lamar 48 Brewer 47 (OT)
Viking Season: 10-3
On a windy day at Eaton HS the Vikes got some good work in and we coaches learned some things particuarly about some of our younger players. Once a team is qualified for the State Tournament (which we did at the 2nd SQT) there is a natural tendency to "left off the gas". The 7 on 7 coaches work very hard to make the players understand that as a team we are paying $300 per tournament to get real games against other teams with refs and travel for a reason. That reason is to get better and hopefully peak right around the end of June for the State Tournament (6/30-7/1).
These extra tournaments post qualifying give us a chance to look at different players in different combinations so we can find the right mix for the state tournament. After Saturday, in consultation with Coach DeLay and his staff, we have selected the final 20 team members for State (subject of course to injury or other factors). The hard part for us as coaches is that every year getting to 20 (state rule) means we must leave 1-4 players off that roster that have contributed and are capable of playing at the varsity level. We will encourage those players to keep coming to practice AND to try to help the Viking JV team get qualified for the "Prime Time" state tournament. We will now take those 20 players to the final two SQT's so we get used to playing as units and playing fast. Our next tournament is in HEB this Saturday (6/17) and I will post on the web site front page under the PDF tab the specifics as soon as it is released.
Kids are working hard and we are getting better. The next two weeks are key to our growth as a team. NEED EVERYONE AT PRACTICE THE NEXT TWO TUESDAYS AT 6:30 PM AT CRAVENS. TEAM PICTURE IS THIS TUESDAY AT 6:30 PM.
VFND!
Jim Poynter
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