Baldwin County, Georgia Military Prep, and Twiggs County competed in a 7 on 7 drill Tuesday at the GMC practice fields. While the drill is usually scored and highly competitive, the teams used the event as a way to get some practice against other teams before training camp begins August 1.

“Defensively we get to work on our coverage and our passing game without having a whole lot of contact,” said GMC defensive coordinator Steven Simpson.

“Offensively it’s a chance to get reps, work on spacing, and for our QB to work on leads, his progression,” said Brad Owens, GMC’s offensive coordinator.

The drill runs like a typical football game, however offensive and defensive linemen are removed so that teams can focus more on passing and pass coverage.

“It’s not real because you don’t have a line of scrimmage, but it is good work because you get to recognize formations and coverages and see what your kids will do against competition,” said Baldwin coach Jesse Hicks.

“It’s good for us because we do a lot of it against each other and then you come here and you see a different coverage, or formation and it gives us a chance to try and adjust on the fly like you would in a football game.”

The event was just one of many for the teams involved. Baldwin recently returned from a team camp at Wake Forest University.

“That’s probably the best camp that we’ve been to since it was specific to what we do. I had questions that I needed answered. I probably got worked better than the kids did,” said Hicks.

While there, sophomore Kitray Solomon even received a scholarship offer from the school and he wasn’t the only one that interested Wake Forest coaches.

“They still love Courntey(Ingram) and Darius Nelson, they liked him a lot.”

GMC was competing in its fourth 7 on 7 drill of the summer and will be competing in another one on Thursday versus Newton Co. Owens stressed that winning the event was not the goal, but competing.

“Learning how to compete.Understanding that we’re talented enough to compete with other teams that are bigger and faster than we are. If we do things right, we can play with anybody.”