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Battle on the Mountain doubles in size, attracts 12 teams

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The Battle on the Mountain seven-on-seven junior varsity and freshman football tournament hosted by Ramona High School involved 12 teams who each played at least five games on Saturday.

“It was a big success,” said Ramona head football coach Damon Baldwin. “It was just tremendous.”

Last year the tournament had six teams. This year’s Battle on the Mountain included North County, City of San Diego and East County teams, and even one from Imperial County.

“We had a good mix from all the areas,” Baldwin said. “I’m glad to see schools come from all around.”

The games consisting of 10-minute quarters took place on six fields: two in the Ramona High School stadium, two on the back grass fields at the high school, and two at Olive Peirce Middle School. Although Baldwin organized the tournament, assistant coach Mike Ernst headed game day operations to allow Baldwin to oversee the activity.

“I could get around and watch all the kids,” Baldwin said.

California Interscholastic Federation officials oversaw the action on each field.

Each team had five pool play games with the top two teams in each of the two pools playing a sixth contest. La Costa Canyon and El Camino each had 5-0 pool play records, and La Costa Canyon prevailed in the championship game between those two teams.

Ramona and Christian were each 4-1 in pool play; the Patriots defeated the Bulldogs in the consolation game.

Baldwin noted that the emphasis was on development of young players rather than necessarily winning.

“We were playing more to play all the kids,” he said. “It was to work on ourselves and work on our kids’ understanding of the system.”

The first day of practice for the high school team programs is August 5.

Seven-on-seven freshman and junior varsity tournaments aren’t as common as varsity equivalents.

“Those kids feel real special having their own tournament,” Baldwin said. “They develop so much confidence competing against other people.”

Baldwin plans to expand next year’s Battle on the Mountain to two days with freshman competition on Friday and junior varsity games on Saturday.

“I’m sure we can find eight to twelve freshman teams who can see the value in that,” Baldwin said.

He said this year’s tournament was a fun day,.

“Everybody was ecstatic,” he said. “We’re going to try to build on it.”

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