PITTSGROVE – Say what you will about 7-on-7 not being real football, but a lot of teams take advantage of the platform over the summer to work on their passing game – on both sides of the ball – even if the big linemen aren’t there to provide protection.
Schalick used to be one of those teams and it still might be in the future, but this summer the Cougars have taken a step back from it, doing what head coach Kevin Leamy called “staying low key and just putting in a lot of … old-fashioned hard work and getting prepared.”
The Cougars did four years of 7-on-7s when Mike Wilson was head coach, and they continued last year in Leamy’s first season, but given their approach to offense and the experience of the team they had, the thought was to just keep things in-house and work on making what they do best even better. As such, they didn’t see another color uniform after the South Jersey championship game until their first preseason scrimmage against Delsea on Aug. 18.
SCHALICK COUGARS Aug. 28 – Maple Shade, 6 p.m. Sept. 4 – Burlington City, 6 p.m. Sept. 11 – at Woodstown, 6 p.m. Sept. 18 – Salem, 6 p.m. Sept. 26 – at Paulsboro, 11 a.m. Oct. 1 – at Cumberland, 6 p.m. Oct. 9 – Penns Grove, 6 p.m. Oct. 16 – Pennsville, 6 p.m. Oct. 23 – at Overbrook, 7 p.m.
“Time will tell if it was good,” Leamy said. “We feel like it was the right decision. The kids are on board with it. Everyone has bought in to the reason why we haven’t done it. Now time will tell whether we’re the idiots who are the only ones not doing it or maybe we’re on to something.
“For us, my No. 1 thing is I had a schedule that worked really well that was allowing kids to be kids for their summer and we were going to limit the amount of times we were here. But when you limit time you only have so much time to get things done. So, in my view, taking that extra day we would’ve done a 7-on-7 and making it a practice we were able to get a lot more done in terms of football than you could ever get done in a 7-on-7.”
The Cougars have always been run heavy. They looked to bring more passing into the offense a couple years ago when the coaching staff at the time realized how much not having that part of the game cost them in the 2022 playoffs. They’ve always had the weapons to make it work, but that’s not their bread-and-butter.
The skill position players didn’t miss it and neither did the linemen who weren’t a part of it anyway.
“We know what we have, we know what we are, we know our identity,” backup quarterback and middle linebacker Gary Simonini said. “We can throw the ball if we need to any time we want, but 7-on-7 I feel really distracts people from the game and it wastes a lot of crucial time to where you can be learning in the summer before the season gets to the nitty gritty as opposed to just like going out to these 7-on-7s where you just see guys running unrealistic plays that you’re never going to see on a Friday night.
“We’ve got a lot of guys returning. We know how these plays look. Now, it’s about perfecting them and fine tuning them and making adjustments. It’s not about everyone else, it’s about us. if we can be our best, that’s all we have to worry about.”
And having that self-examination was particularly good for this team. Last year was their first season under Leamy and that came with the usual learning curve on both sides. Now, the players have a better understanding of the playbook and expectations and the good base of returning players can work on honing the plan rather than learning it while blending the “decent amount of freshmen” they have, several of whom are likely to play, into the fold without the distraction of the competition or hype of 7-on-7.
“Staying together and running the plays as a team with everybody together I think helped us,” lineman Aiden Torres said. “When we did 7-on-7 last year and were running our plays the line didn’t have a real look to see what was going on so we had a lot of missed blocks, mistakes; we were all over the place. I think this year us staying together more as a team and getting more of a scout, and looks at what we needed to see and do, helped us.”
That’s not to say they won’t do 7-on-7 again. Leamy said he reviews every year and a lot of it depends on the type of team and leadership it has.
“We just felt this was best for us for this year for this group,” Leamy said.
Whatever offense the Cougars run this season it all will run through quarterback Kenny Bartee. The athletic junior missed the team’s two preseason scrimmages with a nasty gash on his big toe, but he’ll be ready to go for the season opener against Maple Shade. Last year he rushed for 703 yards and 11 touchdowns while throwing for 613 yards and six scores.
Their next biggest weapon is David Stewart. The senior track star is a threat to break a long one whether it’s catching a pass or breaking off a run. He caught nine passes for 189 yards last year, with a long of 73, and was the team’s second leading rusher with 373 yards on 41 carries.
But they also return playmakers Ayden Jenkins, Dez Purnell and Gary Simonini, who combined for 356 yards on 139 carries, and most of the offensive line is back. They graduated a lot of points in record-setting kicker Hunter Dragotta, but they shouldn’t miss a step with Shawn Kelly.
“The biggest thing is it’s Year Two, they know what to do really well,” Leamy said. “Bartee is just in a so much better spot right now than he was last year. He understands the offense more, hes throwing the ball better, his footwork is better, his reads are better. Everything is light-years better than it was last year.
“The idea is that we take that next step from where we ended last year, which was a really good spot, instead of starting back from the beginning where we had to work our way up throughout the season.”
Most of the offensive starters double up on defense. It will be anchored by the front six that includes Torres and Noah Bermudez up front and middle linebackers Simonini (53.5 tackles) and Purnell (80 tackles). Stewart brings his speed to the secondary, where he had four interceptions last year, and is looking to produce an all-state kind of year.
“I think we’re looking way better than people expected us to,” Stewart said. “People come out here and expect to roll over us because we’re from the country, we’re not that big, but it’s football. We’re going to come out here to hit and play no matter what.”
The Cougars got off to a slow start last year and went through a rough patch in the middle of the season, but they still played in the sectional final for the third year in a row. With a solid group of returnees and an offseason to work exclusively on themselves, they go into the season with high expectations looking for more.
“Overall I think we’re where we need to be,” Leamy said. “The biggest thing, it’s Group 1 football, the biggest thing is depth. Everyone understands it’s going to be the-next-man-up and everyone’s ready to go. Everyone’s ready to play.”
