My First 7 on 7 Passing Tournament: Observations, Videos, & A Prediction

Today, I attended my first ever 7 on 7 passing tournament, The Battle of the Beach Passing Tournament at Edison High School in Huntington Beach, a tournament in its 22nd year.

I did not arrive until after Pool Play had ended—yet, there was still a buzz around the athletic fields.

The high-school football games I attend usually only have two teams present: the home team and the visiting team. However, this gathering was a tournament with more teams present than just two.

I have been to high-school basketball tournaments where a multitude of teams compete--yet given the size of a basketball team (10-13 players), you are not overwhelmed with the number of players in their team groups scattered around a gym.

Peacock Effect

It’s a different story at a football passing tournament. Teams can consist of 30 or more players—and, with 20 teams participating today, there were probably an upwards of 600 players roaming, gathering, and taking part in the “peacock effect.”

When a peacock participates in its mating ritual, it displays its plumage and performs a dance. Don’t take me wrong, my intention is not to use the term peacock pejoratively. I did not see any “mating” going on—I saw some dancing though—rather, I witnessed many adolescent boys being proud of their school and their team. For those of us old enough to remember, NBC’s motto used to be “proud as a peacock.”

Tents

Another unique aspect of these tournaments is the array of tents the football teams have on display with their name, logos, and sometimes their motto.

Some teams even have more than one tent. Yes, these tents have a functional purpose to provide shade—but, some of these tents seemed prepared and equipped for a multi-day tournament (or perhaps, enough supplies for a few days of "shelter-in-place") while some even had catering going on for their athletes nourishment.

I wonder what this tournament looked like in 1998 when it first started.

Well the peacocks gathered around these tents. It was actually exhilarating—lots of adolescent boys being proud as a peacock!

I only saw three games: Narbonne vs Bosco (quarterfinal), Bosco vs Servite (semi), and Bosco vs Mater Dei.

In full disclosure, I am a Bosco homer. Yet, Bosco was playing my high school alma mater, Narbonne, in the first game I watched. My allegiance is to Bosco and so was the W (29-7). Next up was Servite…a closer game than the score indicates (21-8 Bosco).

In the championship game it was Bosco vs Mater Dei (when these two teams meet it seems there are always high stakes involved).

Not knowing all the rules for passing tournaments, I was perplexed at some of the calls such as how long the quarterback can hold the ball before he has to get rid of it (the rules say 3.5 seconds)...hmm, I seemed to have seen a lot of plays in which the QB held the ball for more than 3.5 seconds yet there were no calls. Note: Huntington Beach is in Orange County.

Well, Mater Dei won 24-12 to win their 4th consecutive championship at this tournament.

Being a fan of high-school football in general and Southern California in particular, I wondered how much of a predictor these passing tournaments—this one in particular—are on the following football season for the tournament's winner.

Below are the winners of this tournament from the past 5 years and how they did in the CIF playoffs:

* 2015 Winner – Narbonne High School -> CIF-L.A. City Section

Champion & CIF State I-A Champion

* 2016 Winner – Mater Dei -> CIF-SS Open Division Runner-Up

* 2017 Winner – Mater Dei -> CIF-SS Open Division Champion & CIF State Open Division Champion

* 2018 Winner – Mater Dei -> CIF-SS Open Division Champion & CIF State Open Division Champion

* 2019 Winner – Mater Dei -> TBD

If I was a betting man, I will be bold and say the 2019 TBD result for Mater Dei will be very similar to the 2016 result with the Monarchs being the runner-up to my home team...Go Braves!

#BoscoFootball #DeepDives