In some ways it wasn't much fun to watch the 7-on-7 workout Wednesday on the top of Market Street at Harrisburg's Severance Field.
Don't be mistaken — it was an extremely entertaining and spirited nearly three hours of helmets-only hight school football on a beautiful evening.
PHOTO GALLERY OF HARRISBURG 7-on-7
But these summer workouts not only don't feature any line play, but the running backs are out of the picture pretty much as well. The backs are on the field, but just run short patterns and catch the occasional checkdown route.
So it was a mild bummer to have two of the best senior running backs in Pennsylvania — Harrisburg's Robert Martin and Coatesville's Daquan Worley — on the field and neither carried the ball once.
Martin, a Rutgers recruit, and Worley, who is verbally commited to Penn State, are also all-state quality defensive players so watching them work in coverage was a treat.
But outside of that one downer, this was an evening full of juice and intensity — somewhat unexpected levels of intensity.
Joining the pair of Class AAAA state powers was Susquehanna Twp. and Steel-High.
Perhaps it was something in the pleasant cool evening air, but these teams had plenty of competitive juice pumping through those veins for this workout.
Hitting and tackling is frowned upon in 7-on-7 workouts. Nobody wants to get hurt. Plus, kids are wearing helmets and shorts for the most part. And shirts are optional.
Let's just say there were more hits and tackles than anybody was comfortable with.
In fact at one point when Susquehanna Twp. and Coatesville were drilling through their 30-minute session, a strong hit brought more than 14 alloted players onto the field at close quarters for a minute or so.
Order was quickly restored and cooler heads prevailed.
But it epitomized this workout. The players were jacked up. It's still more than a month until the first regular-season games, but if the players had their way it would have started Wednesday night at Severance Field.
Harrisburg and Coatesville squared off first, and the Cougars found the end zone three times from 40 yards out. Coatesville struggled to score against the Harrisburg defense.
But remember the linemen aren't there. And the Red Raiders for head coach Matt Ortega have a massive offensive line and an elite running game featuring Worley.
Susquehanna Twp., who by the way will be going with white helmets this year, took another step forward in its search for a quarterback. Right now it appears the Indians will hit training camp on August 12 with three candidates.
Steel-High was overmatched for the most part. But in the long run this kind of workout will benefit the Class A Rollers. Head coach Tom Hailey said this is more beneficial mentally than anything.
"Plus they get to see what hard work does for you," Hailey said. "Look at those other three teams. You can tell those kids are living in the weight room. Our kids work, but they don't look like that. It was good for them to see that in person. There's some specimen's out there."
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