By DREW GRANTHUM / Sports Writer

Kingwood Christian School’s varsity football squad captured the Birmingham Southern 7-on-7 Team Passing Camp tournament July 24.

The tournament, which featured large schools such as Jackson-Olin, Oxford and Minor among others, saw teams’ quarterbacks, receivers, linebackers and defensive backs square off in a non-tackle scrimmage.

The teams squared off in round-robin competition in the morning to determine seeding for the afternoon elimination tournament. The Lions went undefeated in the morning competition beating White Plains, Woodland, Minor Restoration Academy and Oxford. TKingwood tied Minor in one contest.

“We played five games for placement,” said head coach Steve Birmingham. “We finished pool play 4-0-1, (and) went into the tournament as the No. 1 seed.”

After a break for lunch, tournament play began, and saw the Lions open up with a first round victory over Jackson-Olin, 4-1.

Kingwood continued to roll, beating Woodland twice, 4-1 and then 5-4 in overtime on a Micah Wallace touchdown to advance to the championship round.

In the finals, KCS took on Minor High, with whom the Lions tied in round-robin play. It was a close contest, but the Lions took down the Tigers, 3-2, to clinch the tournament championship, going undefeated in elimination play.

“(It’s a) huge boost for the program,” said Birmingham. “They were pumped. Minor was tough.”

Birmingham, who wasn’t present for the final — he went to the hospital with injured player Montez Haynes — said he was impressed with his team’s performance.

“Across the board everyone played well,” he said. “Montez did real well. Gavin Sumrall (is) a very good student of the game.”

While Birmingham said he was proud of the effort, he said he wasn’t surprised how well the small school fared against the bigger schools.

“We have the same caliber (of players) as 5A-6A (programs),” he said. “We just don’t have the numbers or depth. It was exciting.”

Recent transfer and touted recruit Cyontai Lewis did not play in the tournament, as he was in Las Vegas playing AAU basketball.

Kingwood will kick off their season Aug. 23 at home against Jackson.