RED RAIDERS SUMMER SUMMARY
The team has had a busy summer with strength training and conditioning 3 times a week all summer long. We participated in 2 team camps with varsity candidates one at Auburn and the other USC. The skill players on offense and defense participated on the 7 on 7 tournaments at both camps. We did well in each tournament with a quarter finals finish at Auburn against some of the best teams from Georgia and Alabama. We were a little short handed at the USC tournament with a lot of our rising seniors taking the SAT that Saturday, but we played well with a lot of young guys getting valuable experience. The OL and DL were working with the Auburn and USC coaches when the tournaments we going on.
The other passing tournaments we in were top performances against some the best Teams in South Carolina. We played at Wren in a 16 team national qualifier tournament and we won that one by going undefeated. Wren finished second and was able to go to Tampa and they posted an 8 and 2 record. Our next tournament was at Byrnes’ 7 on 7 Palmetto Showdown which had top teams from Pa., NJ, NC, Al. and SC. We showed well by placing 3rd with big wins against Byrnes and Bergen Catholic NJ, who has one of the nation’s top quarterback prospects. The Red Raiders finished the summer passing leagues at Rock Hill High by placing third again only losing to Northwestern once in pool play and once in the semi-finals. NW will be one of the toughest teams in 4A with another top QB prospect.
We consider the summer very successful by competing with top teams from around the southeast, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The high finishes are great but more importantly the development of younger players, who will have to replace 8 graduates off of defense, got better all summer. We have also seen a lot of players make significant gains in size and maxes in the weight room. I would like to thank all my coaches who gave up a significant time this summer away from their families to get the RED RAIDERS better.