It's On! Hornets and Spartans Travel to Byrnes SC

For some schools across North Carolina, the 2011 football season began shortly after their 2010 season ended with extensive strength and conditioning programs ramping up to place their athletes in the best possible position to excel on the gridiron.  Aside from the necessary dead-period near the end of 2010, associated with the change in sports seasons and exams, a number of schools took advantage of North Carolina's rule book and were back out on the field for limited skill work - working ball skills, technique and an occasional 7-on-7 within squad.  For everyone else - that perhaps took it a bit easy - this past Monday in many school districts and most notably in Durham marked the '...you best get everyone out and started workin' it hard, not-mandatory-officially, but mandatory-unofficially start of 2011 ball...'  Schools across the county, Northern Durham, Riverside, Jordan, Southern and Hillside all had some form of workouts or prep for 7-on-7 in progress.  Two programs in particular that have been the class of the PAC-6 the past few seasons were in the progress of putting the final touches on a trip down south to take on some big-time programs in what has become one of the top regional 7-on-7 competitions in this area!

The 11th Annual Palmetto State Showdown hosted by Byrnes HS ramped into full gear earlier this morning with two of Durham's top programs making the trip south to compete for top prize.  Coach Antonio King's 4A State Champion Hillside Hornets and Coach Adrian Jones consistently impressive Southern Spartans are two of 20 teams taking part in this annual event.  The national 7-on-7 tournament is being held today and tomorrow and will include a preliminary round set-up throughout today and tomorrow morning, culminating with an elimination tournament tomorrow afternoon.

The list of schools in attendance is impressive, with state champions and perennial playoff participants in abundance.  Byrnes HS will field an A and B team (2010 SC State Champs) and Myrtle Beach, SC, another 2010 SC State Champ will also be attendance.  Georgia and New Jersey state runners-up, Bergen Catholic and Colquitt County will also be attendance.  Add to that a total of nine other state playoff teams from a year ago, not including Southern or Hillside and the field is loaded with high quality, well-coached competition - exactly the type of atmosphere that programs that wish to challenge both their athletes and coaches, seek out - in order to continue to up the bar!

The Hornets are slated to take on the following 10 teams in preliminary action: Spartanburg, SC (2010 SC state semi-finalists), Brunswick, GA (2010 state playoffs), Dover, DE, Wren, SC (2010 state playoffs and last year's tournament champ), Kings Mtn, NC (2010 state playoffs), Byrnes B (essentially JV and frosh), Greenville, SC (2010 state playoffs), Myrtle Beach, SC (2010 SC state champs), Lexington, SC (2010 state semi-finalists) and N. Gwinnett, GA (2010 state playoffs).

The Spartans also have a full slate including the following: Myrtle Beach, SC, Oxford, AL, Woodruff, SC (2010 state semi-finalists), Greenville, SC, Bergen Catholic, NJ (2010 state runner-up), N. Gwinnett, GA, Kings Mtn, NC, Spartanburg, SC, Chesterfield, SC (2010 state playoffs) and Blythewood, SC.

Will be interesting to see as the next two day's progress as to how our local boys are doing down south!

You can visit for more information on this event at the following link - Information on Palmetto State 7-on-7

Rivals.com breaks down the field - Rivals.com Breakdown