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Football: West hosting 7-on-7 SQT on Friday

By Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com

Published: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 4:21 PM CDT

Plano West's 7-on-7 varsity team got this past weekend off.

The Wolves had earned it after starting the summer by winning the Frisco Liberty State Qualifying Tournament to capture a spot at the 15th annual Division I FOX Sports Southwest 7-on-7 State Championship Tournament, which is July 19-21 at Texas A&M.

"We were glad to get that done," said Kelly Mercer, West offensive coordinator and 7-on-7 coach. "Now we can enjoy the rest of the summer and not worry about pressing."

The downside to already being qualified for state is that West will only play three pool games in the remainder of its 7-on-7 tournaments. But that fact alone will not prevent the Wolves from giving 100 percent effort.

"I was concerned a couple years ago when we qualified for state early, but that wasn't fair to the kids," Mercer said. "They have a lot of pride in what they do and continued to play hard no matter what the stakes were. I learned from then on to never underestimate these kids."

Look for that sense of motivation to be on display Friday when West hosts its SQT.

While the Wolves will not advance past pool play because of their state qualifier status, the team does have three tough games slated with Sherman, WT White and Frisco Centennial alongside West in Pool A.

"These three teams all present very different challenges," Mercer said. "We put Centennial with us because they made it to the semifinals at Liberty and really brought it to Hebron, so they should be tough. Sherman has typically been good at 7-on-7 through the years and White, while I don't know as much about their success level, always brings good athletes with them to these tournaments."

The talent doesn't stop in West's pool though.

"We tried to set things up as evenly as possible," Mercer said. "And if you look at the other pools, I think there are at least two really good teams in each of them."

Pool B is comprised of Lake Highlands, Frisco Liberty, Prosper and Boswell; Pool C features Hebron (also a state qualifier), Richardson, Rockwall and Lovejoy; and Pool D consists of Denison, McKinney, Duncanville and Sachse.

This is the fourth year West had hosted an SQT.

"We've been heavy into 7-on-7 since I got here," Mercer said. "Hosting your own tournament can bring some statewide exposure, so when we talked about doing our own tournament we didn't just want to be another place teams could go with four fields, we wanted to be one of the best tournaments in the state. We might not have been one of the best that first year, but I think we really have gotten to that point since then."

In addition to the typical traits of an SQT, West offers a free t-shirt to every player participating and a goodie bag for each team.

There are perks for the spectators as well with Mooyah Burger and a snow cone vendor set to be on site Friday.

Pair of Cowboys at West's 14th annual golf tourney

The Plano West Quarterback Club hosts its 14th Annual Golf Tournament and Bunco Bash Monday.

The event, at The Tribute Golf Club in The Colony, has a variety of price points with entrants paying $175 for the tournament (which includes golf, lunch and dinner) and West cluster football players paying $100. The Bunco bash and dinner is $40 per person.

Money raised from the tournament, which has a shotgun start of 1:30 p.m. Monday, and auction goes in part to support Wolves football. It will also go to the Livestrong Foundation, which is headed up by Linda Armstrong Kelly (mother of seven-time Tour de France Champion and Plano native Lance Armstrong).

This year, former Dallas Cowboys Everson Walls and Drew Pearson will be in attendance for the golf tournament.

Registration is available at: planowestfootball.org.

For more information, contact Kelly Roeschke at: 972-979-6368 or: Kelly.roeschke@hovservices.com.

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