Summer camp coming to a close for CHS football

<p class="p1">With the dog days of summer upon us and less than a month before school resumes, the Chester High School football team is wrapping up its summer campaign with a pair of 7-on-7s against Red Bud and Sparta.

<p class="p1">The Yellow Jackets will take Sparta on Thursday for a trio of contests, starting with the freshmen at 5 p.m. Junior varsity will take the field at 6 p.m. and varsity at 7 p.m.

<p class="p1">Chester will then travel to Red Bud for a 9 a.m. contest on Friday. Both 7-on-7s are on the road as W.O. Smith Field is currently undergoing renovations to its playing surface.

<p class="p1">"Some of the main goals were bigger, faster, stronger," Chester coach Jeremy Blechle said on his team's goals entering summer camp. "We're going to retest here again here at the end of camp with one week left (and) we're going to see how much improvement we have.

<p class="p1">"We had some good sessions in the weight room, some good conditioning days."

<p class="p1">Blechle noted that timing of handoffs between the quarterback and his running backs was also a focus, as was leadership and attitude.

<p class="p1">"That was a thing we really barked at, was the fact that we needed some leaders to step up and we need older guys to show younger guys how football's supposed to be done in Chester," Blechle said. "It's a football town, a lot of tradition, a lot of things you stand for and one of the main goals was to see some leaders shine through and they did."

<p class="p1">Chester won't face either Red Bud or Sparta in the regular season, as the Yellow Jackets open the 2016 Black Diamond Conference season on the road against Fairfield on Aug. 26.

<p class="p1">The contest with the Mules is one of five road games this season, as Chester will travel nearly 1,000 miles to compete against Fairfield, Vienna-Goreville, Johnston City, Carmi and BDC newcomer Edwards County.

<p class="p1">As far as what he expects out of the 7-on-7s, Blechle said he hopes to see that his players are "in sync" in the offense.

<p class="p1">"The routes are getting ran the right way and the quarterback is not throwing a lot to the wrong jersey," he said.

<p class="p1">"But outside of that, the main thing with a 7-on-7 is you get to compete."

<p class="p1">The 7-on-7s come at the end of the IHSA's allotted contact period and the players will have a week off - otherwise known as "Dead Week" - before fall camp begins on Aug. 8.

<p class="p1">"Really, practicing against each other, summer camps, those kind of days you really don't get to compete much," Blechle said. "This is where you have different color jerseys on and you're going 20-30 miles away to compete against other teams."