eagles win just one game at passing league

After losing all but one game last week at the annual Knoxville Orthopedic Clinic Passing League at Webb School in West Knoxville, veteran Seymour Eagles head football coach Gary Householder is anxious for two-a-day practices to get underway on July 25.

High school football programs across Tennessee are actually allowed to begin official practices on Monday, July 23. The Eagles, however, will go through their grueling two-a-day practices from Wednesday, July 25 until Thursday, August 3.

“Right now it looks like we’re healthy and ready to go,” said Householder. “We’ve had another productive off-season and we’ll get a better opportunity to see what we’ve got when two-a-days get started next week.”

As in years past, Householder said the Eagles will hold both of their daily workouts during the two-a-day sessions in the afternoon.

The evening practices provides mercy from the relentless dogday heat of an East Tennessee Summer, and gives players with summer jobs more leeway in making their football practice schedule coincide with their work schedule.

Other than a Wednesday 14-3 win over defending Class 2A State Champion Alcoa at the Webb passing league, Householder was frustrated with the Eagles’ overall performance last week.

“That’s the first time since we’ve been participating (in the Knoxville Orthopedic Clinic Passing League) that we haven’t won at least two games,” Householder commented.

The games at the annual passing league are played sans the typical football pads and helmets, as players don shorts and t-shirts along with a flag football belt around their waist. The non-contact league, consisting of half a dozen teams from the Greater Knoxville area, feature teams made up of skill position players, who play both ways, a center, a place kicker and a punter.

There are no running plays whatsoever, giving quarterbacks and their receivers ample opportunity to refine their timing and communication, while providing defensive backs an linebackers a chance to further develop their on-the-ball skills and route recognition less than a month before the lights come on for real.

The Eagles have been among the league’s most successful teams in past years. Last year they shared the overall league title with eventual Class 3A State Champion Fulton.

After surprising Alcoa with a crisp display of passing by Eagles’ quarterback Todd Ogle and sharp route running by his corps of receivers on Wednesday of last week, the Eagles fell flat in their next action and wrapped up their run at the 2007 passing league with a poor performance in a 27-6 loss to Webb on Friday.

It was not the last impression Householder envisioned having of his squad as they entered two-a-day practices.

“We were lackluster against Webb on Friday,” Householder said. “We weren’t ready to play and didn’t move the ball on offense and didn’t cover their receivers when we were on defense. That was the worst game we had played all week.”

Ogle, Seymour’s exciting senior signal-caller, had a tough week.

A dual-threat quarterback who has proven as adept to pulling down the football and improvising down the field on the run as he is to standing in the pocket hitting his tight end on a crossing route, Ogle was out of his element during last week’s competition.

He shined at moments, particularly in Wednesday’s win over Alcoa. But on more occasions than not, Ogle appeared conflicted, trying to decide where to go with the football after realizing the option of running was not available.

Of course, in less than 30 days when the pads are strapped on and the flags are used exclusively by the men in stripes, Ogle will be more at home in the offensive backfield, relying on his legs as much as his right arm.

“I think Todd was as accurate as any quarterback (at last week’s passing league),” Householder said, explaining what led to his quarterback to becoming frustrated at times last week.

“Todd’s a perfectionist and he wants it to be perfect on every play. In the passing league a lot of times he was forced to look at the number one receiver, the number two receiver and the number three receiver, and so on, because the option of running the ball wasn’t there.”

Ogle had his greatest struggles last week when the Eagles were playing against the quick defenders of Fulton.

“I struggled both times against Fulton,” Ogle commented. “Against Central I played alright, and I played really well against Alcoa but I don’t know what it is about Fulton but I always seem to have a bad game when we play them.”

Ogle will have another chance to face his greatest pre-season nemesis on August 14 when Seymour travels to Fulton High School for a full-contact scrimmage against the defending Class 3A champs. Seymour will also have a chance to redeem itself against the Spartans when they go back to the West Knoxville private school’s sprawling campus on August 7 for a pre-season scrimmage against last year’s Div II State Champions.

The Eagles kick their 2007 regular season off in zero week when they host Class 5A Heritage at Benton Householder Stadium on Thursday, August 24.