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7-on-7 is now 12.
Thursday marks the opening day of the 12th annual Fox Sports Southwest 7-on-7 State Championship presented by adidas and Academy Sports & Outdoors.
Pool play for the 32-team Division II (Class A-3A) begins at 1 p.m. at Penberthy Intramural Fields. The top two qualifiers in each pool advance to the championship bracket Friday morning.
A trio of teams from District 24-3A is in the competition, including Navasota, Cameron and Rockdale.
Navasota's Pool G features Abilene Wylie, Hardin-Jefferson and Palestine Westwood. The Rattlers reached last season's 7-on-7 Division II final, falling to Crane 38-27.
"With 7-on-7, the great thing is that it gets the kids together where they can work on timing and things like that," Navasota coach Lee Fedora said. "It's great to see the kids building that kind of chemistry. It's a little different because the quarterback doesn't have somebody hit him in the mouth."
Cameron is in Pool D, which includes Edna, Graham and Melissa. The Yoemen also reached the 7-on-7 state tournament in 2002.
Returning quarterback Steven Townsend, who will be a senior, leads the Yoemen. He passed for 1,644 yards and 21 touchdowns in nine games last season.
In competition that highlights quarterbacks, the Yeomen have experience at the position over their district rivals. While Navasota and Rockdale had playoff seasons last year, both have new quarterbacks.
Kye Hildreth has led the Rattlers in 7-on-7 play this summer, but quarterback will still be a competitive position with Ian Day, who led Navasota's unbeaten JV team last year. The guy who doesn't take the top QB spot will like be a key contributor at receiver.
"7-on-7 is helpful to us because we have a new quarterback and new receivers, who have been playing well together," said Fedora, whose team reached the UIL's Division I quarterfinals last season. "You want to win, but it's 7-on-7. The ring you are going for is for winning state in 11-man football."
Rockdale plays in Pool H, facing Lago Vista, Lorena and Snyder. Rockdale is playing in the tournament for the third consecutive year and fourth overall. The Tigers qualified this year when China Spring dropped out.
Rockdale's Joe Sanders played quarterback as a sophomore before moving fulltime to receiver as a junior. He's back taking snaps for his senior year, while Justin Elliott is emerging as a top receiver for the Tigers.
Division II will be wrapping up its consolation and championship bracket play Friday when the 64-team Division I (4A-5A) begins at 1 p.m. Both brackets build toward a final game to be played at Kyle Field. In its third season, the Division II tournament will add a consolation final tentatively set for noon. The championship game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
In Division I, the top 32 will play in the championship bracket with the remaining teams in consolation. Division I consolation and championship finals are tentatively set to for 4 and 5 p.m. Saturday.
Richland returns to defend its title in Division I. Class 2A Crane, the Division II winner last season, did not qualify this year.
No Brazos Valley teams qualified for the tournament in Division I.
