Local Area Teams Battle Weather, Each Other in Annual “Raid at the Rock” Competition
NEW LEXINGTON, OH
It might not be full on contact football, but 7-on-7 is still an exciting time for these young high school athletes to iron out the kinks during the summer while facing some tough competition looking for the same result. Over at “The Rock” in New Lexington, the Panthers hosted five other schools for an annual get together.
For five years running now, the New Lexington Panthers have hosted the “Raid at the Rock” competition, inviting several other schools to come compete against one another in 7-on-7 action. Local area schools such as Zanesville and Heath came to participate, but so did a pair of out-of-state schools from West Virginia, both from Parkersburg.
Even a brief weather delay wasn’t going to stop these teams from getting after it and putting on a tremendous summer passing display. But for every team, player, and coach involved, each was facing its own challenges: whether it be communication, competition, or simply avoiding the rain.
“Well, when you host, you got to keep everybody in the garage when it starts raining and storming, that was the biggest thing” joked New Lexington head coach Kevin Board.
“But no, it’s just, you know, you reach out to coaches and you get them set up in the spring. You know, it’s nice to be able to just roll out of bed and walk down here. You know, our kids don’t have to go anywhere, we don’t have to worry about a bus, you know. But it’s not a huge challenge. No, it’s been good. We’ve done these now for five years and it’s just a way for us to get a lot of reps and we built some relationships with coaches, the kids that know each other, they’ve played each other.”
Panthers senior quarterback Isaiah Stephens added “A lot of competition, like our guys compared to their guys, and just the timing of your passes, your drops, that all goes pouring into a season, even when you’re playing physical. Just, that stuff all goes into it.”
When asked what the biggest challenge was for these events, Heath wide receiver Josh Jones said “our most difficult part is communication. Just making sure everybody’s on the same page and just doing the same thing every single play.”
“You know, really right now is just getting into the mode of competing really. You know, you can’t really tackle, you can’t really block, you can’t do all those things that make football, football” said Zanesville head coach T.J. Carper.
“So you know, just getting them to understand, hey this is not a walkthrough, this is not something that we are just going to go out and do, this is something that we’re going to go out and be great at, and we are going to work on different parts of the game, certain situations, and things like that.”
