Russellville hosts single-elimination summer football tourney

By Brannon King / For the FCT

Russellville High School was the scene Friday for a large 7-on-7 football camp hosted by the Golden Tigers.
The all-day event featured pool-play that seeded each participating school’s team into a single-elimination tournament bracket. The tournament closed out the camp, which also included a lineman competition earlier in the day. The games took place on the new artificial surface at the stadium and also on the RHS practice field.
“We’re thankful to be able to host such a tournament and be able to get a lot of the local schools and some from far away here,” Russellville head Coach Mark Heaton said. “It’s a big event and a great day of competition, and I thought everybody handled everything well, so we’re excited about that.”
The varsity Golden Tigers struggled to get things going and failed to claim any wins in 7-on-7 play with losses to Hartselle, Deshler, Haleyville and Brooks in the early session. Sheffield defeated RHS in the opening game of the tournament. The Haleyville Lions won the competition with a big win over the Colbert County Indians.
“At the end of the day, we all want to win because we’re competitors,” Heaton said after the tournament. “What’s more important to me than winning and losing in these 7-on-7’s and the competitions you do in the summer is the attitude that we bring and the way that we react to adversity. I think right now, we’ve got plenty of guys that can make plays, but what we need right now are guys with great attitudes and guys that handle adversity well, and that’s a process, and we’ve got the guys to do that. I believe in them.
“I’ve got a great group of kids, and I’m going to stand by them, and I know they’re going to fight for me. We’re going to fix everything we need to fix and be as good as we can be when we line up and play the jamboree Aug. 18 against Athens,” Heaton added.