By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
On a steaming hot day that felt airless, the Pam Pack quarterbacks still managed to air out the football during Washington’s 7-on-7 passing league scrimmage at D.H. Conley on Wednesday.
The Pack QBs took their turns zipping the ball around from receiver to receiver, and while they didn’t always hit their target, they appeared to do more right than wrong.
During passing league games that’s about all you can ask of a quarterback.
“The quarterbacks, all of them, have been throwing some pretty good passes,” Washington coach Sport Sawyer said. “We have had the receivers doing a good job of stepping up and catching the ball too.”
Washington took turns competing against fellow 3-A schools D.H. Conley and Havelock, as well as 2-A programs Kinston and North Pitt.
Each team squared off against an opponent for an allotted amount of time before rotating. The entire session lasted nearly two hours as players gutted out the practice in temperatures that flirted with triple digits.
Washington enters the season having a three-way competition at quarterback between Johnny Broadway, Jimmy Williams and Jack Rodman, and Sawyer said that the No. 1 spot will not be decided until they get some practices under their belts.
“Right now with the quarterbacks, until we start to doing a lot of running and practicing it’s hard to tell,” Sawyer said. “In the passing league there is no pass rush and no handoffs so it’s hard to tell, but they are progressing; it’s still a battle.”
Sawyer said each of his quarterbacks have shown flashes of potential.
“Jimmy has thrown the ball pretty accurate tonight,” Sawyer said. “Johnny has made some good reads and some good throws. Jack has also had some good reads and showed good timing. I see some progress in all of them.”
Though it’s a passing league, the exhibitions are not just about the quarterbacks. The scrimmages present a good opportunity for coaches to work with their back seven on defense.
The Pam Pack defense looked solid on Wednesday and held up well despite the fact the game is tilted in favor of the offenses.
“Defensively, we are looking at different people,” Sawyer said. “Our linebackers are getting used to dropping in coverages and so are our DBs.”
The most important aspect of the passing league is that each player takes a step towards improvement. So far the Pam Pack players have done that.
“I like the progression, the guys are working hard,” Sawyer said. “This stuff is good, but until you start hitting you can’t tell a whole lot. But the guys have gotten better from their first passing league game to now.”