Football in June

The spread has become one of football’s most popular offenses.

Colleges like Florida, Hawaii and now Virginia have shown what this dynamic system can do with a strong-armed quarterback and a couple of speedy receivers and high schools across the country have adopted it as their own.

NFL teams aren’t above employing the high-flying offense either. Peyton Manning and the Colts have run it to perfection for years and now the Dolphins have even taken the Wing-T, merged it with the spread and named it the “Wildcat.”

Greg Hatfield stormed into Culpeper last summer bringing his spread offense with him and, in his first year as Eastern View’s coach, exploited the holes it creates in a defense with the electric ability of star running back Stevie Strother and led the Cyclones to a 12-4 record.

“It’s easy to say, ‘We’re going to run the spread and throw the ball around,’” Hatfield said. “But it’s not that easy to do.”

Strother and quarterback Cody Whitlock — along with the rest of the seniors from Eastern View’s inaugural team — are gone, but today Hatfield will get a chance to take a peak at who will be spreading the ball around next year as the Cyclones host a 7-on-7 passing tournament.

“I’m excited because it’s June and we’re playing football,” he said. “This gets the kids together playing ball and it’s a great opportunity to compete with local teams.”

The fields surrounding Eastern View will be cluttered with quarterbacks, receivers and defensive backs from 12 area schools today from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Joining the Cyclones will be North Stafford, Stafford, Brooke Point, Riverbend, Atlee, Fluvanna, Monticello, Massaponax, Park View, Rappahannock and Battlefield District foe Spotsylvania.

The teams will compete on 40-yard fields. They will have four downs to make it from their 20-yard line to the opponents 40 and then four more to score. No running is allowed, only passing.

“We have a lot of good teams coming because we want to compete against good teams,” Hatfield said. “This really just gives us a chance to see the kids and there’s always a kid or two that jumps out and surprises you.”

Hatfield began running these tournaments during his days at Central High School and continued them during his tenure at Fauquier. He has seen how valuable offseason workouts like these can be, especially to the young man who will be filling Whitlock’s cleats next season.

“The quarterbacks are probably the easiest to evaluate in this type of setting,” Hatfield said. “All offenses are hard and involve a lot of timing, but quarterback is especially difficult to play in a spread. This gives the guys a chance to throw the ball a little, get some rhythm and see how coverages unfold.”

Cody Jenkins — a rising junior at EVHS — and Simon Pendleton — a sophomore — have been splitting reps so far this summer and Hatfield said the duo will continue to get equal time under center today and they can expect to see exactly how the Cyclones play during the regular season.

“We’re only doing the stuff we normally do,” he said. “You can get crazy with coverages in a tournament like this, but we’ll play the same way we do during the season.”