The stars shined through the heat at the Foley 7-on-7 Showdown on June 28 and 29 as the football season nears closer.

The Foley Sports Tourism Complex once again hosted the annual event that saw more than 600 athletes compete across 24 teams. Despite heat indexes in the triple digits, Foley head football coach Deric Scott said all of the squads did well with hydration.

“Everybody came and accomplished what they wanted to accomplish, they got a lot of good work. We had to battle the elements and the heat, it was really hot out there but I thought everybody did well with that,” Scott said. “It was really just a great environment for high school athletics and high school football where players get better.”

Out of six teams representing Baldwin County at the tournament, the Lions made it farthest in the championship bracket where they fell to the eventual champion Thompson in the semifinals. Daphne found the end of the road in the quarterfinals, Gulf Shores, Spanish Fort, Fairhope lost in the second round and Elberta dropped its first-round game.

They were up against top teams from Alabama, including defending champions Thompson and Saraland, Louisiana and Florida where Scott said he heard plenty of positive feedback from coaches.

“Everybody thought the tournament went well, everyone thought it was a great environment and it was really an opportunity to get better with high quality ball being played,” Scott said. “I think everybody left with a positive impression and a positive experience from the whole tournament.”

With the summer offseason only just getting started, Scott said the 7-on-7 tournament helped start the journey to finding the Lions’ identity.

“Just trying to develop that identity, develop our program and develop more from the passing game standpoint and the pass defense standpoint,” he said. “We're really trying to identify those guys that can do the things that we would like to execute in the passing game as well as in the pass defense game.”

The two-day event also featured a Wednesday dinner hosted by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Scott was sure to share his appreciation to all the helping hands.

“We want to say thank you to the City of Foley and Foley Sports Tourism for their participation as well as our sponsors. A lot of people helped make this work and I can't name them all but I want to say thank you,” Scott said. “We had an FCA event on Wednesday night that had Mr. Lonnie Cochran, the chaplain for Troy football, pray and talk to our kids that attended the FCA pizza party.”