Bainbridge hosts inaugural 7-on-7 high school football tournament Saturday

For it’s first ever 7on7 high school football event, Bainbridge High School is hosting a Battle of the Bay this Saturday. The 16-team event is scheduled to begin at 9:From 30 a. m. the judo training sessions will be going on in one form or the other through the afternoon.

Spartans head football coach Dan Schoonmaker is also optimistic, adding that, “We’ll see what we can do and come out and put on a first-class show”.

They will be accompanied by Central Kitsap, Kingston, North Kitsap and South Kitsap and other teams such as Anacortes, Decatur, East Jefferson, Foss, Meridian, Mount Rainier, Nathan Hale, Roosevelt, Stadium, Sumner, Todd Beamer as well as the Bainbridge Braves. Anacortes placed first in last year’s Class 2A state championship, the team that defeated North Kitsap in the sem finals is Tumwater which defeated the team that faces Sumner in the quarterfinal, this is after Sumner has been a state contender in Class 2A for close to a decade, with six quarterfinals and two semi final appearances.

“There were some really good squads that are coming in,” Schoonmaker said after the games, noting that the competition gathered teams of various levels of skill.

Schoonmaker being from Huntington Beach California Original the Edison High School Battle of the Beach 7on7 tournament thus used this as the basis for Bainbridge event.

And it’s a big-time event too. ” Said Schoonmaker, who was an assistant coach at North Kitsap before assuming the Bainbridge head coach position last year: “It’s one of the premier tournaments down there. ” North Kitsap went to the Battle of the Beach in 2022-23. "

Starting off all tournaments of this format the Battle of the Bay will start with a round of practice games since the players are adjusted to playing 11 aside and the coaches also have to be accustomed to the format of 7 aside, then proceed with the pool games where participants will be divided into four groups of four teams each. In relation to the basic swim-down format, the two teams at the top of each pool shall qualify for the championship bracket while the two teams at the bottom of each pool shall be in the consolation bracket.

Taking into consideration the above mentioned points some of the rules of the contests are as follows: The contests will be carried out on 40 yards of the field and it will be a strictly passing play on each of them.

“This is some thing that has not been heard of in the NFL; everybody will be given an assurance of at least five Games,” Schoonmaker said. ’Some’ teams will be able to play a number of games as many as would be seven.

The event is being hosted by the Ace Hardware located in Bainbridge Island and Schoonmaker, the coach, hopes that it will eventually amount to what may be considered as an actual invitational format where “we have teams apply for the event and we choose the best sixteen teams”. As we are speaking now ,I enjoy the teams that we have . We are still in the process of creating interest or simplifying it to say, we’re trying to excite people. ”

It means that ordinary fans can watch the event or match.