Andrews – Last week was a busy time for the Andrews football team.
The Wildcats competed in back-to-back 7-on-7 scrimmages on July 12-13. The first was a four-team event at North Henderson High School with the host Knights, East Henderson and Enka, while the second was a home scrimmage against Franklin.
“We come out here and we’ve probably had 8-10 hours of work the last two days with coverage stuff and routes and our quarterback being able to throw the ball,” head coach James Phillips said. “He threw so many balls, which is good. We’ve thrown more in the last two days than we probably will all season.”
Teams are only able to throw in 7-on-7s, which is different than the smash-mouth style favored in the Smoky Mountain Conference. However, the scrimmages still allow athletes to get experience and compete against other teams’ players, while getting a break from the monotony of summer workouts.
After a sluggish start in the North Henderson event, the Wildcats won their last four games after dropping the first two.
“They came back, and they stayed together and encouraged each other,” Phillips said. “I liked their character, I liked their work ethic. They worked their tails off.”
Then against the Panthers, both teams did some 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 drills before scrimmaging 7-on-7 for about an hour.
Both teams started at the 40-yard line and needed to get to the 20-yard line for one first down before scoring a touchdown. Andrews won that portion of the scrimmage, 21-14, with Graham Burch catching two touchdowns and
Eli Aguilar one from Everett Tatham, while both Tatham and Samuel Preston had interceptions.
“We got a ton of respect for each other,” Phillips said of Franklin. “We run it kind of like a practice, then we got after it there for about an hour at the end. I was proud of how the kids competed. Samuel Preston and Graham and Eli. Everett made a lot of good throws out here today. I’ve been proud of their effort this summer.”
Throughout this summer, Phillips has seen this group form an identity. He’s a big fan of the motto “hard, tough and together” that he saw at N.C. State University, which he thinks represents the program he has built at Andrews.
After having about 30 kids for much of last season, the Wildcats will be closer to their typical roster size of 20 this fall. Attendance at summer workouts has been solid, and seniors like Birch, Preston, Tyler West and Dalton Rose are stepping into leadership roles and want to leave their mark after last year’s senior class led the program to its first conference championship since 1983.
“We have to be hard, and we gotta be tough and we gotta be together,” Phillips said.
“I see that kind of emerging for this group. They’re going to have to be tough, but I think that’s the backbone of our program is tough, gritty kids. This bunch is the same way.”