DAYTON – Greenville faced some stiff competition as the Green Wave football team traveled to Welcome Stadium in Dayton for a seven-on-seven scrimmage on Monday.
During the scrimmage, which was hosted by the University of Dayton football team, Greenville faced Wayne, Dunbar, Miamisburg plus Park Tudor from Indianapolis.
“When you’re playing the likes of Wayne, Miamisburg and Dunbar in your first three games – Park Tudor is a small school out of Indianapolis that competes well in their state playoffs – so we saw good competition today, which was the goal when we come down to UD,” Greenville football coach Aaron Shaffer said.
During the seven-on-seven scrimmages both teams only have seven players on the field at a time instead of the usual 11. They don’t have offensive or defensive lines and only run passing plays.
The scrimmages don’t show a team’s complete makeup, but it does give them an opportunity to compete and get better at passing and pass defense.
“In our summer days what we look for is improvement day to day,” Shaffer said. “From starting last Monday to a seven on seven on Thursday to this past Saturday down at Centerville to today we want to see growth. Especially when you’re out competing against other teams you want to be able to show that growth day to day. We got better Thursday, better Saturday, and we were even better today.”
The seven-on-seven scrimmages are especially useful to quarterbacks, a spot that is up for grabs this season in Greenville. Senior Owen Paulus finished last year as the Green Wave’s starting quarterback, but he’s facing competition from sophomore Tyler Byeke.
“One of the big questions this year obviously is we’ve got to find a quarterback to start for us,” Shaffer said. “Obviously Owen finished the season last year, but doesn’t mean that Tyler’s not going to have a chance to show what he can do. Two totally different skill sets, two totally different types of players.”
The scrimmages provide an opportunity for the quarterbacks to practice getting play calls, communicating with their teammates and reading defenses.
“It’s a lot for a young quarterback – any quarterback for that matter – but to come out here and you’ve got offensive guys yelling and defensive guys trying to get their stuff, there’s a lot of going on so the mental processes of a seven on seven and this environment puts some pressure on them so it’s definitely good for those guys,” Shaffer said.
Shaffer isn’t concerned about the results of scrimmages, but Greenville did finish Monday’s competition on a high note as John Butsch intercepted a pass on the final play to give Greenville a victory over Park Tudor.
“It’s good to see us compete and go get a win, but I really don’t care much what a seven-on-seven score is,” Shaffer said. “They don’t start counting until Aug. 25.”
