LITTLE ROCK — Fayetteville and Springdale Har-Ber are scheduled to compete in the fifth annual Music City Classic 7-on-7 passing tournament today and Saturday at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
Arkansas teams have fared well in the tournament, which draws teams from throughout the Southeast. Rogers finished second in 2006. Har-Ber was runner-up last year.
There are three rounds of pool play before bracket play begins at 1:15 p.m. Saturday.
Fayetteville opted to play in the Music City Classic instead of trying to defend its title in the VYPE tournament this weekend in Bentonville.
“Vanderbilt had tried to get us to come the last three or four years,” Fayetteville Coach Dary lPatton said. “We wanted to play one out-of-state tournament.”
The winner and runnerup will receive a berth in the National High School Coaches Association 7-on-7 Football Championship on July 22-24 in Bradenton, Fla.
Fayetteville, which is one of the state’s top 7-on-7 teams, has already received an invitation to the NHSCA tournament, Patton said, but the Music City Classic will be Fayetteville’s last tournament this summer.
“We’ll have played 40 7-on-7 games,” Patton said. “That says a lot.”
Fayetteville won the Harding University 7-on-7 camp tournament June 12 in Searcy.
Sports, Pages 25 on 07/16/2010