YUBA CITY, CA (MPG) - The quietest time around all sports activities for high school athletes is the “dead period,” which began on Monday, July 1, and runs through Sunday, July 14. But the Live Oak and Gridley football teams spent time playing in 7v7 matchups.

Live Oak has spent a few days across the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section as they participated in the Sutter and River Valley 7v7 matchups throughout the month of June, and Gridley traveled to Cottonwood on Friday, June 28, to go up against West Valley.

The Lions participated in a six-team session on Tuesday, June 25, at River Valley that included Yuba City, Sutter Union, East Nicolaus and former Sacramento Valley League foe and defending CIF Division VI-A champion Colusa.

Live Oak head coach Robert Titlon told the Herald there were a lot of good benefits this offseason that he will be able to use for when practice gets started at the end of the month.

Tilton expressed that the biggest benefit was that they were able to see competition and work on their x’s and o’s consistently.

Tilton added that his linemen were able to get repetitions, as well, due to them having a part of the facilities competing in “trench wars,” where linemen were able to go up against each other from different teams.

Tilton told the Herald that there were building blocks over the next couple months prior to the season opener against Wheatland on Friday, August 30, and that after using different looks on the defense, he realized what defensive scheme he was going to want to focus on this season.