Rattlers set to play in first State 7-on-7 Tournament

San Marcos will make history this weekend as the Rattlers will make their debut in the State 7-on-7 Tournament this weekend in College Station.

Despite 7-on-7 not being an official UIL sponsored event, Head Coach John Walsh is still proud of the Rattlers who qualified for the tournament after winning the Lake Travis State Qualifying Tournament by defeating Dripping Springs in overtime.

“Anytime you hear that a team did something for the first time, you can’t help but to be proud,” Walsh said. “Since being the Athletic Director, we have had the volleyball program win the most games in school history and the basketball program has done the same. Throwing in something like 7-on-7, it’s always fun to say you are accomplishing something for the first time.”

San Marcos not only defeated Dripping Springs to advance but also won their pool against some of the major football programs in the Austin area.

“We played some really good programs in Vandergrift, Dripping Springs, Westwood and Austin Bowie,” Walsh said. “Every game that we won, we had the ball with less than two minutes left while trailing so we needed a game winning drive. The kids competed and they played.”

Despite 7-on-7 growing in popularity, there are some positives and negatives that come from the sport.

“I have a love/hate relationship with 7-on-7,” Walsh said. “The love part is that you are competing. We work our concepts offensively and defensively so there are some positives. The things that we worry about are obviously injuries and then not being able to coach the players.”

But Walsh hopes the Rattlers can work on multiple aspects that can affect the team during fall.

“There are two things you like to develop during 7-on-7,” Walsh said. “One is developing your passing unit on their cohesion and building those relationships. Two is when the coaches are not able to coach, the players themselves have to lead by themselves so player leadership rises to the top.”

San Marcos will enter the 7-on-7 State Tournament along with 63 other teams in the Division 1 bracket consisting of high schools classified in 6A and 5A.

Much like how the World Cup is organized, the 64 teams are divided into 16 pools consisting of four teams each.

The top two teams will advance to the Championship Bracket and the bottom two teams will advance to the Consolation Bracket.

Pool play starts on Friday while the elimination bracket games will start on Saturday.

San Marcos will be placed in Pool B where they will play PSJA North, Cy-Falls, and Keller Timber Creek.

All games will be played at Field 3 with San Marcos playing all their games on Field B side on Field 3.

Start times are at 1, 2:30 and 4 p.m. coltonbmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc