Viera Hawks Football Set to Host Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Six Other Teams in Brotherhood 7-On-7 Tournament

July 17 Event to be broadcast on Space Coast Daily TV

ABOVE VIDEO: Viera Hawks Head coach Derek Smith spoke to Space Coast Daily’s Alan Zlotorzynski about the upcoming Brotherhood 7-on-7 Tournament and about another great charitable event being run by the Hawks QB Club.

BREVARD COUNTY • VIERA, FLORIDA – Sports is not only a great teacher in life but it’s also a great healer. There are many times in recent history when sports helped heal the country or a city following a tragedy. 

Who will ever forget President George Bush throwing out the first pitch at the 2001 World Series, or the New England Patriots running onto the field at the Super Dome in New Orleans being introduced as a team during the 2002 Super Bowl?

Following the Boston Marathon bombings, the Red Sox were instrumental in helping that city through the healing process.

More recently, the Orlando City Lions soccer team and the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team led the charge in their respective cities as both tried to recover from the top two mass shootings in U.S. history that saw a total of 107 people killed and 904 more wounded.

Last February, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School located in Parkland, Florida suffered through one of the worst school shootings ever as 17 students and staff were fatally shot and 17 others were wounded.  While life will never return to normal for those that were there that day, life’s activities do carry on and one of them is the game of football.

The young men that will step on the gridiron for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 will do their part to assist the Parkland community in the healing process next Tuesday in Viera as the Eagles are one of eight teams that will participate in the First Annual Viera Hawks 7-on-7 Brotherhood Football Tournament.

Organized by the Viera Hawks and their new head coach Derek Smith, six local Brevard County squads and one team from Indian River County will take part

The tournament was born when Smith and Marjory Stoneman Douglas head coach Quentin Short, also in his first year, were attending a recent Fellowship for Christian Athletes event and collaborated on the idea.

Short and Smith have known each other for some time. From 2006-2012, Short was the offensive line coach at Bayside High School where Smith was the head coach.

Smith, who was the Hawks defensive coordinator and took over as head coach last December for Kevin Mays, hopes to make the tournament a yearly event. Smith isn’t the only new Brevard county head coach bringing their team to compete in the July 17 event.

New Brevard County high school head coaches include Matt Deisel of Space Coast, Christopher Sands of Eau Gallie and Cory Broomfield from Bayside will have their squads present and ready to play.

Second-year head coaches Justin Worden of the Astronaut War Eagles and Ted Kimmey of the Satellite Scorpions will also bring their teams rounding out the Brevard participants.

Remarkably, Worden and Kimmey enter the game as the longest tenured head coaches with their teams in the tournament.

The Sebastian River Sharks will travel up I-95 with a first-year head coach as well. Longtime assistant coach for the Sharks, Tony Perry, was named the team’s interim head coach for the upcoming season back on June 26 after their head coach resigned following one season at the helm to take a job out of state.

You will be able to watch the entire tournament on Space Coast Daily TV. 

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