Scotland football continues to learn as we reach middle of summer | Laurinburg Exchange

LAURINBURG — The Scotland Fighting Scots football team held their third seven-on-seven practice of the summer with teams from around the area Wednesday morning at Scotland High School. Teams in attendance included the Lumberton Pirates, Latta Vikings and St. Pauls Bulldogs among others. The Fighting Scots previously held these types of practices twice in June, on the 19th and 26th.

The team had the first week of July off from workouts after having a busy month toward the end of June. Over a ten-day stretch from June 17 to June 27, the team had eight practices, two of which were of the seven-on-seven variety and a trip to Raleigh for a camp at North Carolina State University on June 21. They returned to the practice field on Monday.

The team has continued to get better and learn from where they were just under a month ago. For instance, after the team’s first seven-on-seven session in the middle of June, Head Coach Richard Bailey mentioned route running as one area the team had to improve.

“We need to clean up how we’re running some routes and do some learning there,” Bailey said at the time. “It’s early in the summer and they’ll get better as they get more reps.”

True to his word, they have gotten better as they have gotten more reps. The offense caught several long touchdowns during Wednesday’s practice with the defenders nowhere to be seen, a direct product of good route running.

Defensively, the team made several key pass breakups and never made things easy on their opponents. Bailey was pleased with that aspect in June but knew they had to work on getting players to the right spots in coverage.

“I thought we did a really good job getting hands on balls,” Bailey said at the time. “Getting everybody to the right spots with various coverages is something we got to work on but I was pleased.”

Wednesday’s practice saw multiple plays get blown dead as a result of the defense holding strong on the back end. Seven-on-seven practices often allow the quarterback a handful of seconds to get rid of the ball before it’s deemed to have been a sack in a real game. The defense also made multiple pass breakups while playing airtight defense and never making things easy.

There will be one more seven-on-seven session tomorrow before having the next week off and returning on July 22 with three more seven-on-seven practices between then and July 24. They will have regular practices on July 25 and July 29, the final summer workout before the team begins regular season preparations.

Scotland was knocked out in the third round of the 3A state playoffs last season. Their season opener is scheduled for Aug. 23 in Dillon.