Princeton bringing 10 schools for Saturday’s 7-on-7, lineman challenge

The Princeton Tigers football team will ramp things up a bit this week.

After two more days of minicamp Monday and Tuesday, the Tigers will venture to Washington for a joint practice with the Panthers on Thursday before hosting their annual 7-on-7 and Linemen’s Challenge on Saturday.

Princeton will invite 10 schools, with some fielding varsity and freshman/sophomore teams to participate in Saturday’s 7-on-7 and Linemen’s Challenge at Bryant Field and Little Siberia. This year’s field includes newcomers Winnebago and Canton and La Salle-Peru, which returns after a year off, along with Rockridge and Mercer County out of the Three Rivers, Eastland-Pearl City, Dixon, Sandwich, Marquette and Ottawa.

“It continues to grow each year. I think this is our eighth or ninth year we’ve done it,” Pearson said. “We’re bringing in some really nice competition. It’s great competition because the F/S teams aren’t competing against just F/S teams, they’re going to get the opportunity to go against some varsity squads. We’re excited about it. Should be another fun-filled day of competition.”

The Princeton varsity will have games with Ottawa at 9 a.m., Winnebago at 9:45 a.m., Dixon 2 at 10:30 a.m., Canton at 11:15 a.m. and EPC at 12:45 p.m., all at Bryant Field.

The Princeton F/S will play EPC 2 at 9 a.m., Dixon 2 at 9:45 a.m., Sandwich 1 at 12:45 p.m. at Little Siberia, and Sandwich 2 at 11:15 a.m. at Bryant Field.

Ottawa and Marquette fans will get a clash of their teams at 10:30 a.m. at Little Siberia.

In other varsity games, L-P will play Sandwich 2 at 9 a.m., Rockridge at 10:30 a.m., Dixon at 11:15 a.m. and Dixon 2 at 12:45 p.m.; Ottawa will play Canton at 9:45 a.m., Sandwich at 11:15 a.m. and Dixon 2 at noon; Dixon will face Rockridge at 9 a.m., EPC 2 at 9:45 a.m., Canton at 10:30 a.m. and Marquette at noon; and Marquette will play Mercer County at 9:45 a.m., EPC at 11:15 a.m. and Rockridge at 12:45 p.m.

Pearson, a lineman in his day playing for Stark County’s 1997 Class 1A state runners-up, always wants to make sure the linemen get in on the fun and created the linemen’s challenge.

“It’s always the skills guys that get to have some fun, so we want to make sure the big uglies up front get to have some fun, too,“ he said. ”The linemen love it, and that’s what it’s all about. We just want a nice day of competition.

”We’ve got the bench press competition, the relay, and the tug-of-war is kind of the fan favorite at the end, it seems like. Once the tug-of-war is going on, nobody’s watching 7-on-7. There’s about 200 people over there watching the finale of the tug-of-war. You’re out there at the 7-on-7 and you can hear everyone whooping and hollering at the linemen’s competition. We’re over at Little Siberia and they’re over next to the tennis courts, and [it] sounds like they’re right next to you."

The lineman events will start in the PHS weight room for the bench press before heading out to the track for the farmer’s carry and 5x400 relay. Then it’s over to the Prather Field area for the plate push and tug-of-war.

Practice at Washington

This will mark the third year the Tigers will hold a joint practice session with Washington, which is coached by PHS alum Todd Stevens in his second year as head coach of the Panthers. Stevens played on the Tigers’ 1989 state runners-up.

The Panthers came to Princeton for a summer session a year ago, and the Tigers practiced at Washington in 2023.

“It’s great for our kids. The amount of competition we get to play a school like Washington. They’re perennially a 6A quarterfinal team. They kind of have same kind of luck that we do. They either draw Sacred Heart-Griffin or East St. Louis [in the quarterfinals]. They’re a very, very good football team. We have nothing but respect for them and what they do.”

Pearson said it’s a good mid-summer opportunity for the Tigers to see how they stack up with top talent.

“They’re good. There’s no ands, ifs and or butts about it,” he said. “We’re a 3A school getting an opportunity to see what we’re made of. We always gauge ourselves not necessarily how many yards we gain or pass plays we complete, we want to see how our kids compete. Some of the guys they’re going to go up against are going to be better than anybody you see all year, and that includes even the playoffs.

“If we go over and compete like I truly think our kids are going to, that’s a win for us. Then we got the confidence coming back that you know what, ‘If we can hang with a 6A program like Washington, we can hang with anybody.’”

Pearson, who knew Stevens from his Mid-Illini days when Pearson was coaching at Canton, thanked him for steering him to Princeton in 2018.

“Todd has truly been a good friend of mine. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be at Princeton,” he said. “He met with me and basically said, ‘No, you need to apply at Princeton.’ If it wasn’t for him telling me that, I’d probably still be at Canton.”

Pearson is trying to beef up the Tigers’ summer schedule and will bring in East Peoria to Princeton for a joint practice on Thursday, July 24 at 10 a.m. at Little Siberia at the varsity and F/S levels.

“I know most people might be tickled pink being 44-7 or whatever it is, over the last four years with four quarterfinal appearances ... we want to get over that hurdle. Maybe beefing up the summer competition might help us do that,” Pearson said.

The Tigers will hold their full week of camp along with weights the week of July 21-25. Pearson will then give the team two weeks off prior to the start of the first fall practices the week of Monday, Aug. 11.

PHS will open the season on Friday, Aug. 29 against Newman at Sterling High School in a Three Rivers Conference crossover.