KFDM COOP Posted June 12, 2006 Report Posted June 12, 2006 By Matt Diggs You will read that Southlake Carroll actually won their own tournament! How can this be? The rules hold that teams are not allowed to advance out of their own pool! The story goes back a little further than this - rumblings at the Weatherford tournament and the Wylie tournament clued Little Matt and myself to the fact that Southlake was going to hold a controversial tournament. Until we had pools, we decided to keep hushed up about it - and talk to the coaches directly and find out what was going on. Although we do not deem ourselves horribly ethical journalists with degrees in sports journalism 101, we do know the bounds of common sense, and did not want to go public with this information, especially without any type of confirmation from coaches. Friday night came, eight phone calls were left unreturned to the Carroll coaching staff to get pool information. Another prominent website was also unable to find out Southlake pool information. This was very curious, as usually pools are not hard information to obtain. Something fishy was going on in Southlake, but we decided to sit on the information. It turns out that Southlake was being hushed about the situation as they were about to run a SQT that ran perpendicular to the rules set out by the 7 on 7 officials. I would only imagine if Little Matt and I knew from referees that Southlake was considering running some weird tournament, that some of the directors knew about it as well. Although this is unconfirmed, I can only imagine that the SQT directors would not have been happy about this - and were not happy after the way the tournament unfolded. Southlake decided on its own volition to have eight teams out of 16 advance to quarterfinal play, regardless of the actual rules. I suppose, as some message board Carroll experts put it, to give the Dragons continued reps against good competition for their fall dominance - because 7 on 7 means nothing. I would like to take this moment to congratulate Colleyville Heritage coaches for having the integrity not to continue on into the qualifying rounds, allowing Azle a chance to advance. It wouldn't matter as Azle lost to Southlake Carroll in the first round of this unorthodox style, so basically Carroll, a team that qualified, knocked out Azle, a team that was given the chance to qualify by a gracious act of Heritage, from having the chance to qualify. Stay with me here if this might be confusing. A team that has already advanced to the state tournament is now preventing another team from qualifying in the big dance. So in the semifinals, we have Carroll, Grapevine, Stephenville and Lamar - 3 teams that have not qualified, no representative from pool D, and two representatives from pool A - one of which that has qualified. It makes you wonder why to even have pool play at this point. Must have been for the precious Dragons to have extra reps and practice for the fall season. Lamar and Carroll win, so Carroll knocks off a SECOND team that won its pool and has not qualified for its own personal glorification I suppose, and Arlington Lamar wins the first berth. I suppose to at least follow the rule that says two teams must qualify, a third place game was created with Grapevine and Stephenville. Stephenville lost to a non-qualifier in Lamar, and Grapevine lost to a state qualifier in Carroll. In the finals, Southlake Carroll wins their own tournament, defeating Arlington Lamar on what Little Matt politely noted as a "controversial play" - what Little Matt didn't want to say, and that I received an email or two about, is that the Dragons scored on the last play of the game, as the horn whistled, but about 2-3 seconds after the 20 minutes had expired for the game. Several "unofficial" time keepers had noted that the time had expired, but the Dragons wanted to get one more play off, the Dragons were the time keepers, and well, the Dragons win the tournament. Regardless of a 40:03 clock, we can only be glad that this was a meaningless championship game - I can only imagine what would have happened if Carroll decided to make up more rules and require teams to beat them for the right to make the tournament on 3 instead of 2 occasions. So Grapevine and Stephenville play the third place game, and Grapevine loses to Stephenville, apparently tired from playing SIX games to qualify instead of the requisite 4 games - and having their 5th game (which is normally a meaningless championship game) be against Southlake Carroll to qualify! Since the 7 on 7 board of directors strongly believes in their rules, judging by the actions taken in Alvin to disqualify a team that had played four full games and won four full games before being informed that their jersies violated code, and assuming since I knew that Southlake Carroll was having an illegal format - that certainly some of the other coaches knew as well that they were violating policy, I call for a disqualification of Carroll from the tournament and a revocation of their SQT for the next year. Anything less than this will be a sign that the 7 on 7 board of directors won't follow by their own rules. Carroll forced its arch rival Grapevine to play SIX games for the opportunity to qualify - whereas every other tournament in the state requires only four. Carroll created a situation that was advantageous to them - they got to play in six different games without any pressure to qualify - meanwhile teams that don't start the season on third base are fighting and clawing just to get into the tournament. I would propose that Grapevine receive Southlake's disqualified spot, since it was Southlake's illegal pool format that adversely impacted the Mustangs, forcing them beyond their comfort zone to have an opportunity to even qualify. I am personally embarrassed as someone that covers 7 on 7 fairly religiously that Carroll would so openly and egregiously disregard the rules of the 7 on 7 tournament. The Dragons have been as much of 7 on 7 as any team, winning the first ever 7 on 7 tournament in 1998. Their mere presence in College Station brings the level up. Wylie's victory over them last year had a celebration attached to it like a state championship (Gobbla2001 Note: Wow, never celebrated like that after practice ha). For the 7 on 7 directors at Southlake to cheapen the tournament for whatever gain they feel they may have achieved was disrespectful and lacked integrity. I would call on Southlake Carroll to voluntarily take themselves out of the 7 on 7 state tournament, but if they decide not to do this, I hope the state board takes the appropriate action - for Grapevine, for Sugar Land Dulles, which lost the chance to play in College Station, and for the 7 on 7 community in general, that demands that the rules be followed.
KFDM COOP Posted June 12, 2006 Author Report Posted June 12, 2006 Thanks Matt for letting us post this.
NeDeRlAnD b-DoG fAn Posted June 13, 2006 Report Posted June 13, 2006 its sad that SLC would go through all this trouble to win a 7 on 7 tournament
Guest Living 4 Friday Nights Posted June 13, 2006 Report Posted June 13, 2006 I had heard through the grapevine that one of SLC's coaches is one of the main guys over the 7 on 7.
Recommended Posts