Scotland football continues to learn as we reach middle of summer

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.

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.

Defensive Back Nishuan Jones was in agreement that the defense has shown improvements over the past couple of weeks but admitted there is still room to grow before the season opener.

“I feel like the defense is getting way better by every seven-on-seven,” Jones said. “We’re still incorporating new plays and people in the mix, when we get all that together defensively, we’re going to be good.”

Jones believes this team is capable of doing special things this year, with the ultimate goal being a championship.

“I just want to play way better than last year personally,” Jones said. “For the team it’s just to continue working hard and go to the championship and get that ring.”

The team will have next week off before returning on July 22 with three more seven-on-seven practices between then and July 24. They will then have regular practices on July 25 and July 29, the final summer workout before beginning 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. 16 against Hartsville.