Hillside and Wakefield Highlight UNC Beast of the Hill Tourney

Courtesy Don Callahan

It didn't take long to recognize that the Hornets and Wolverines were two of the premier squads in attendance this past Friday at the 4th Annual Beast of the Hill 7-on-7 tournament at the University of North Carolina.  Teams were split into four pods of six schools and I was able to take in action for two of the pods somewhat simultaneously that included Hillside and Wakefield.  Both teams on first impression were head and shoulders above the competition within their respective brackets and I actually commented to one of the media members in attendance after watching a few games with each that they were in my opinion 1A and 1B at the event with the Wolverines probably taking the 1A nod.  Of course if I was correct with that early assessment I was even more correct when it ended up that both schools finished the round-robin portion of the tourney at 5-0 and went on to wins in the semi-finals, only to meet for the championship.  Where I was wrong - was that 1A and 1B once the dust settled as the Hornets knocked off the Wolverines late in the championship game with a score that moved them ahead after a back and forth contest that saw a number of ties before the Hornets took the 'ship, 27-21.

Before I expound a bit more on both of these schools, I'll mention that I hope to put another post up in the near future with a bit more about some of the other area schools that were in attendance...so stay tuned in.  It was a great event to check out a lot of local schools and it was also great because of how the event has progressed since it started in its current format four years ago.  Prior to the one-day 'Beast of the Hill' event, the University held a multi-day team camp and a number of schools from the local area as well as out-of-state routinely attended.  The format had group/position instruction and then afternoons and evenings filled with competitive 7-on-7 action.  Everyone typically had the opportunity to play everyone and near the end of the multi-day event, the top schools would face off and in a somewhat 'unofficial' way a school would be the champ.  There was a ton of coaching that went on and the athletes had a great time bonding over the multi-day event.  That was the past and now the one day event dominates the scene.  The Carolina staff had an incredibly organized event from the outside looking in and was treated to some quality competition that yielded two championship games that were decided by a single score after having the games tied late.  As an aside, Leesville Road captured the 'lower flight' championship and in the limited amount of time I was able to see them, looked to be chugging along as though nothing had changed for the Pride (and to be honest - I really don't think much has changed - and that can mean only good things for all those Leesville Loonies out there - y'all go crazy now!!)

For those that are familiar with Inside Carolina, you can grab a ton of information on this event and I've placed a link to an article by Don Callahan, one of the IC staff writers.  I'd also like to thank Don for allowing me to utilize some of his photos from the event -- greatly appreciated!  Hillside is Beast of the Hill (Don Callahan - Inside Carolina.com)

Now onto our impressions of Hillside and Wakefield...