GRAPEVINE STATE QUALIFIER

On Saturday the Vikes traveled to Grapevine for the 2nd of 6 State Qualifying tournaments.

In game 1 the Vikes defeated the Richland Rebels 42-21. On a sad note, a Richland player broke his leg for the 3rd time in his young career. The Vikes said a prayer for him during the halt in play.

 

In game 2 the Vikes spotted Mesquite Horn an 11 point 1/2 time lead as Horn had the ball one more possession and a Lamar TD was waived off by a 4-second call. The 2nd half was a “home run derby” as both teams scored at will on deep balls. Lamar was stopped just short of the game winning TD falling 46-42. We also had an apparent "pick six" waived off by an official.

 

In the final game the Vikes faced Frisco Heritage and came away with a 48-31 victory. For the day the Vikes averaged over 45 ppg while giving up 32 ppg a 13 ppg differential. Horn was the Pool winner by virtue of their “head to head” win over the Vikes. Comparatively the Vikes beat Heritage by 17 while Horn beat Heritage by 1. Horn lost to Richland and the Vikes won by 21! Mesquite won the qualifying round and thus qualified for the state tournament.

Although the Vikes didn’t qualify, we are definitely on the right track. We will continue to work on getting a minimum of “2 stops per half” defensively which we did in 2 of 3 games Saturday. We also must be more consistent on offense particularly in the 1st half of games.

The overall effort was excellent and I look forward to our 3 rd SQT next Saturday in Bedford! VFND

THOUGHTS AFTER FIRST TOURNAMENT AND LOOKING FORWARD

Last week was quite a week for Viking football athletics in general with the NFL draft; regional track competition and the first 7 on 7 state qualifier!

We knew the first state qualifying tournament last Saturday (4/28/18) would be a fun event for the players as it was held at the Cowboys Star Center in Frisco. Our pool games were on the Cowboys turf practice field and it was a fast track on a beautiful day. Although we did not see any Cowboy players some or our guys did spot the Cowboy cheerleaders boarding their bus to Arlington to participate in the last rounds of the NFL draft event at Cowboy Stadium.

Because we have some great athletes on our team we also knew we might "lose" some of them to the "regional" track meet. Well, we had 5 of our fastest guys qualify in the area round which is just outstanding! So along with a couple of injuries we were short at least 6 starters from our 7 on 7 team last Saturday.

With so many key contributors out we asked the remaining players to step up and play literally wherever we asked them to play. Several guys played defense with no experience on that side of the ball since grade school! We played with very good effort but at the end of the day we just did not have enough resources to call on to win our pool and advance to the qualifying round. The kids and coaches were disappointed because we do not take losing easily; there is a lot of Viking Pride in our 7 on 7 program. I told them and their families to not get down at all as it is truly "pre-season" and going forward we will have our whole team with which to compete.

The next two Saturdays we have a couple of our most important practices of the season. For the first time this spring we should have ALL of our players there. This will let us get reps as units and get our communication and schemes worked out and all of our plays installed. On 5/19 our next State Qualifying Tournament will be in Grapevine and I expect us to be at full speed and ready to COMPETE!

PRACTICE UPDATE 4-3-18

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

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

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   

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. 

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!