GREENVILLE — Greenville head football coach Steve Channell wanted his team tested early.

The second-year coach intentionally opened the Green Wave’s 2026 summer 7-on-7 schedule against a larger and traditionally strong Northmont program, hoping to see how his players would respond to greater size, speed, and athleticism.

By the end of the day, Channell came away encouraged.

“I scheduled this because I wanted to see what our kids could do and how they would respond to faster and more aggressive players,” Channell said. “I was really pleased with how we performed.”

Any concerns about Greenville being intimidated by the bigger Thunderbolts quickly disappeared once play began. The Green Wave competed on both sides of the ball, moved the football effectively, and found the end zone against their larger opponent.

“That was the primary thing to find out today, how we would respond knowing that the team may be more talented than what we were,” Channell said. “I thought we responded well.”

While pleased with the effort, Channell also recognized there is still work to be done before the regular season begins.

“I thought we did some good things,” he said. “There were definitely things that were obvious that we need to work on, but overall, I was pleased because I wasn’t quite sure, with Northmont’s talent level, how our guys would respond and perceive themselves.”

The Green Wave’s competitiveness stood out throughout the scrimmage.

“I thought we competed,” Channell said. “I thought we competed pretty close to even throughout the day — enough to know that we’re going to be OK and enough to know we have some work to do at the same time.”

Building confidence and depth has been a major focus since Channell took over the program. Throughout the school year, he has worked to increase participation by recruiting students from the hallways and cafeteria while emphasizing the importance of developing the program from the middle school level through freshman, junior varsity, and varsity football.

That effort appears to be paying dividends, with several newcomers making an immediate impact during the scrimmage.

“We have a couple of kids that came out new this year that I thought performed really well,” Channell said. “Logan Inman, the wide receiver, had a couple of really nice catches, and returning letterman Isaac Kerg looked good.”

For Channell, Greenville’s ability to compete with a program the size of Northmont speaks to the progress being made.

“Who would have ever thought several years ago that Greenville would go compete with Northmont in a seven-on-seven?” Channell said. “I thought we competed well.”

The Green Wave will continue preparing for the upcoming season with two more 7-on-7 scrimmages. Greenville hosts Tri-County North and Milton-Union on Thursday, July 16, before traveling to face another larger opponent, Richmond (Indiana), on Monday, July 20. Both scrimmages are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.