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By MACKENZEE SIMMS | Staff Writer

CALERA – Previously held in Alabaster, the Team Southern Express Foundation’s 7v7 football tournament, Border Wars, moved to the city of Calera on Saturday, March 9.

Southern Express Inc.’s founder Byron DeVinner is a Calera native and after hosting the tournament at Thompson High School for the past seven years, DeVinner decided he wanted to bring the tournament to his home city.

“With Calera growing and me being from Calera, I just saw fit to try to give back to my home city—just to be an advocate for Calera and try to bring positive ideas to Calera,” DeVinner said.

As a non-profit organization, Southern Express Inc. hosts 7v7 tournaments to help athletes practice their skills outside of the regular football season.

“We started these tournaments to actually help out athletes to be able to go out and compete against different athletes, to work on their skill set and to get better and have them compete against other top-notch players from around the country,” DeVinner said.

This year, Border Wars comprised of 30 teams across three age groups, 12U, 15U and 18U, referring to players 12-years-old and younger, 15-years-old and younger and 18-years-old and younger. These teams come from multiple states across the South which is how Border Wars gets its name.

“We named it that because we always have teams from Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida,” DeVinner said. “The bordering states always come to play with Alabama being in the middle of them, so we named it Border Wars.”

7v7 football refers to a style of play where there are no linemen and there is no tackling. This gives teams the opportunity to focus on special skills like passing and receiving. DeVinner believes this allows 7v7 play to be faster paced and more competitive than regular football.

“The spectators will see a more competitive kind of football than a lot of them will see on Friday nights because there is no linemen. It’s strictly skill guys— receivers, quarterbacks and defensive backs, competing in a 7-on-7 tournament where you have seven players on offense and seven on defense,” DeVinner said. “The game is really fast. You’ll see kids go into the game, get adapted to it and then when they go back to the high school level, it’s a lot slower for them.”

For DeVinner, the most rewarding part of hosting these tournaments is connecting with former players and watching them pass knowledge to the younger generations.

“A lot of the guys come back and watch because they know what it was like when they played and they enjoy watching these younger kids and pouring out support and guidance to help them as well,” DeVinner said.