As Chipley enjoyed the spoils of victory by celebrating and taking pictures, Charles Henderson head coach Brad McCoy had to take a seat and reflect on the whirlwind of the day.

Ten teams took part in the Wiregrass 7-on-7 Championship Thursday, and McCoy said the event went as well as he could have hoped.

“When we have done this in the past, we have had four or five months of planning,” McCoy said. “This time we had about three weeks, but it was a really good tournament. I hope we can continue to bring in quality teams and maybe grow it some in the future.”

Chipley bested a talented field of teams to take top honors, including perineal powers Elba, Greenville, Andalusia, Dothan, Straughn and Charles Henderson.

The event was originally set for last week but was pushed back due to inclement weather. McCoy feels the date change didn’t affect the play much, if at all.

“We originally had 14 teams committed, but wound up with 10 today (Thursday),” McCoy said. “However, the 10 teams are really athletic and some of the best from this part of the state. We thank them for sticking with us and coming out. I think the other coaches know it is a quality tournament and their guys will get some good reps against some pretty good competition.”

McCoy had been the driving force behind the Wiregrass 7-on-7 for several seasons at his previous school, Daleville. Now at Charles Henderson, with what he calls “unlimited space and fields,” he sees the tournament getting stronger each and every season.

“The people at Troy let us use their facilities and that is a huge help,” McCoy said. “We can have multiple games going on at one time, and the day doesn’t drag on. Each team also gets a chance to play on the turf field at the stadium which is a huge draw. It was a good first tournament in Troy, and if everything goes like we want it could expand to 16 or maybe even 32 teams in the future.”

McCoy also wanted to specially the companies and individuals who served as sponsors for the event.