By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports

Faux football season has begun for local high school players.

There’s still a football involved and someone is keeping score, but it’s pretty obvious that what’s being played in June isn’t the same as what is being played in October.

It would be a little unfair to call 7-on-7 a “necessary evil” for local high school teams as they get ready for the upcoming season, because coaches will tell you that it is necessary.

But there is one unavoidable fact. “It’s not real football,” said Matthew Sewell, who became head coach at Haughton last month after being the offensive coordinator at Parkway.

It is, however, competition, which is what other coaches point to as being the best thing about it.

“I like the competitiveness of it and how the kids respond to that,” veteran Huntington coach Stephen Dennis said. “Whether it’s good or it’s bad; you get to see how they react. And there are some good situational football components that you get to work on.

“We only get 10 games during the season, so the best thing is that it gives your kids a chance to go compete against other teams,” Sewell said. “Just getting that opportunity to compete. You can only get a chance to compete against each other in practice so much and they get tired of that. It’s a great thing for that reason.”

Beyond that, there are fundamental aspects for the upcoming season where 7-on-7 experience comes in handy.

“The best thing is for the quarterback in that he has to read the defense, no matter what defense they are in,” said new Loyola coach John Sella, who was the Flyers’ offensive coordinator for five years. “They still have to learn the concepts like reading what the safety is doing. It also gives you a chance to get a look at the receivers and see who can make plays.”

The concept of 7-on-7 is that it’s just football without the linemen (offense or defense). Sounds simple enough, but that’s not really the case.

“The worst thing is that in order to be competitive, you have to do 7-on-7 plays instead of real football plays,” Sella said. “Defenses are running coverages that they normally wouldn’t run in a real game because they don’t have to stop the run.”

“My least favorite thing is the four-second clock for the quarterback (to throw),” Dennis said. “He’s got four seconds to just sit there with nothing in his face. I don’t think that is realistic for Friday night football. Plus, some of the routes that you see run are where the offensive linemen would be standing. That’s not realistic.”

“You get four seconds to throw,” Sewell said. “You are never going to get four seconds in a real game. If you do, your quarterback is making some miraculous scramble.”

Sella and Sewell both moved into head coaching roles after being offensive coordinators so pardon them if the style of 7-on-7 offends their sensibilities just a little bit.

“Offensively, I don’t know if we are planning on going empty much this year, but that’s what we are doing in 7-on-7,” Sella said. “We used to put a running back or a tight end out there, but we weren’t very competitive. We still want to be competitive in 7-on-7, but we still want to work on our stuff.”

“We are going to play this weekend and will be in empty (formation) maybe half the time, but we aren’t going to be in empty in a game very often,” said Sewell. “The plays are usually the same you would run in a real game, but it’s not real because you don’t have to account for a blitz or a defensive lineman.”

For Sella, 37, and Sewell, 27, it’s also a chance to step into the head coaching role for the first time.

“Everything is on-the-job-training for me because I feel like I Iearn something new every day,” Sewell said. “But it’s good for me to be around those guys. It’s always good to get the chance to get to watch your guys play.”

Ultimately, though, it comes down to a coach being able to see players in competitive situations before the season begins in the fall.

“It is necessary in today’s football,” Dennis said. “Like anything else in life, there is good and bad. But I do think the positive components outweigh the negative. It’s the only time in the off season where you get that see that competitiveness.”

Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com