Kaleb Dawson (2), Colquitt County High defensive back, has committed to Appalachian State.

MOULTRIE – Breaking up the monotony. That’s a big reason for playing a spring scrimmage game after two weeks of regular high school football practice.

It’s also the reason why, in the summer, Colquitt County High head coach Rush Propst schedules his Packer skill players for a series of 7-on-7 tournaments. It’s a concept he helped spearhead about 16 years ago in Alabama, and it’s caught on where one can find a competition at every major college venue.

In 2016, Colquitt County went to four such events, including the USA Football National Championship Series held in Hoover, Ala. The Packers also went to the University of Georgia, the University of South Carolina and the Corky Kell 7-on-7 in Atlanta.

Beginning Thursday, Colquitt is slated to be back in Athens. After that, it’s the Corky Kell 7-on-7 Invitational at the Roswell Area Parks Football Complex, which has three new football fields.

It was back in 2001, Propst said, that he felt high school football in Alabama needed something in the summer besides running and lifting. At college camps, there was an exercise called “speed ball” or “air ball” which Propst compared to soccer but with a football, and he didn’t see any benefits in that to the players.

“Our kids couldn’t afford to go to camp for $290,” said Propst. “They started these prospect camps where you go for a day and pay a fee of $30 just to go work out in one session. I thought it was a pretty good deal because you were basically going to practice. But for the team concept, we still didn’t have anything.”

For the first 7-on-7, Propst said 11 schools were involved at Hoover in the summer of 2001. That grew to 16 the following year, then 24, 32, and last year at Hoover Colquitt County was one of 48 involved.

“It became so popular, colleges started doing it,” said Propst. “They saw the value in it.

“Kentucky was doing something similar to it, but it wasn’t an exact science. At Kentucky, you would run their plays, not your plays. I wanted a thing where you could run your own passing game and your own defense.

“What 7-on-7 does is put you in a two-minute mode all the time for a 20-minute game. The clock runs continuously. The last (minutes), you stop it regularly. You can’t run the football, so the quarterback has four seconds to get it off. At 4.00, he’s sacked.”

The scoring is six points for a touchdown, and after a TD you have the choice of a five-yard 1-point conversion or a 10-yard 2-point conversion. Offenses also have three downs to make a first down, and if the defense holds that’s two points. Drives start on the 40-yard-line, and reaching the 25 means a first down. From there, the drive needs to reach the 10 for the next first down. Then it’s 1st-and-goal.

Intercepted passes are worth three points.

“I’ve been in a game where the score ended up 8-6,” said Propst. “All of it was defensive stops. One team got four; one team got three. I was on the short end of that one.

“I’ve also been in games when we were down 23-6 with a minute and a half to go and won the game. There’s some strategy in it. You only get one timeout, so when you are on offense you can’t milk the clock. It’s good rules. We tweaked it from 2001 to 2003 before we got it right.”

For the players, it’s built to be fun while adding the benefit of conditioning and working on the offensive and defensive schemes.

“You still have to get in your weightlifting, your 11-on-11, your running game in,” said Propst. “Skill athletes, they have a lot of fun doing this. I think it’s been a game changer. Some of the best teams in the country are doing it. I think it’s one of the best things we’ve done for high school in the summer.”

Propst has taken the Packers in the past to Auburn and the University of Alabama.

“We were going to go to Florida or Florida State this year,” said Propst. “We decided, because J.J. (Peterson’s) being heavily recruited by Georgia, we needed to go back to Athens. We did not play well in Athens last year. We got beat in the first round, so we came home pretty early.”

But if anyone is looking for a correlation between 7-on-7 success and regular season/playoff success, Propst said there is none. He said some of his teams won 7-on-7’s but didn’t have a great season afterwards, but then also some would get eliminated from 7-on-7 early and go on to win a state championship.

“Does it have an effect on how you play the season? I probably doesn’t,” said Propst. “It doesn’t hurt, either. I take the approach that we are going to compete, and as long as they keep score we are going to do our best to win.

“I am going to find this weekend that cornerback who’s going to play a receiver man-to-man, and if he gets beat, is he going to go out and play him again. Is he going to shy down or stand up and battle? You can’t run and hide. If you are a weak defender, those good quarterbacks who know how to throw the football are going to find you.”

So Propst estimates about 15 to 20 games in these two days. The Kell tournament on Friday has the Packers in a pod with Walton, Buford, Centennial and Creekview. Colquitt won last year’s tournament beating Houston County in the finals, Grayson in the semifinals and McEachern in the quarterfinals.

“We are going to carry more kids this time,” said Propst. “Play some (backups) a bit and give them some work. When they get back Friday, they will be gassed.”

The quarterback in the forefront for Colquitt is senior Steven Krajewski, and Propst again brought up completion percentage as a big measure of his progress. He said 62 percent would not make him happy, neither would a load of INTs.

“It lets me know who our top receivers are,” said Propst. “Which backs do a better job of route running if we are in empty. Which tight end will step up. In the secondary, (Quen) McNeal, it let’s me know about him as a coverage guy. Right now, we have him penciled in as a starter. I want to see (Jarvis Christopher) in live action, and Kaleb (Dawson) at safety. It will tell me which linebackers can run with backs and tight ends man-to-man or can drop in zone coverages.”

That leaves out the linemen (even the center, for the ball is tossed to the QB), but they don’t get those days off. Propst said they will be lifting and running with coaches.

Next week it’s back to 11-on-11, play action passing and run stopping for two weeks prior to a padded OTA camp in Moultrie with three other schools June 29.

“To me, this is the toughest month,” said Propst. “We have some dual sport people playing baseball or basketball at night, then spending five hours here. It’s a grind on them.”