WALHALLA — Sure, there isn’t much from the Hawg-Tuff Lineman Challenge that is going to directly translate to the gridiron when it counts on Friday nights.

But according to all parties involved in the matter, that’s really not what’s important.

On the other hand, they’ll point out it’s the indirect things, like confidence, camaraderie and a sense of teamwork, which were all stressed on Friday in Walhalla, that can pay huge dividends when the lights come on in the fall.

With that in mind, linemen from 10 different schools traveled to Walhalla for the competition on Friday afternoon, including local notables Daniel, Seneca and West-Oak in addition to the Razorbacks, with Blue Ridge ultimately taking the title after competing in 10 events, which ranged from the bench press to a tug of war.

Daniel and Seneca, which both brought enough players to form two squads, saw their top units finish tied for second place with 84 points, though the Lions officially took second in a tiebreaker.

But in the end, it wasn’t the final rankings anyone was truly concerned about, as Friday was all about having a good time and building bonds.

“It’s just fun to watch them go out there and compete,” Walhalla head coach John Boggs said. “I thought it was a lot of fun, and I’d rather do this than seven-on-sevens any day.”

Seneca’s Casey Baldwin, who captured top honors in the bench press while finishing second in the bull pull, said the same thing, as he said he enjoyed his second straight year of taking part in the competition.

“It’s an overall combination of speed, strength, agility and endurance, and it’s just a really good time out here,” Baldwin said. “It’s a pretty good experience, and we just came out to have a good time and get better as a unit.”

And with the prevalence of summer passing leagues for the skill position players getting the limelight, Seneca head coach Ron Duncan said opportunities like the Hawg-Tuff competition are a good way to give the guys in the trenches a good time.

“It’s something good to get those big guys competing,” Duncan said. “We do a lot of passing leagues in the summer, and this is something really good for our linemen to compete with and it went really well.”

And while it may not be the biggest thing, Duncan said he was able to see some noted improvement compared to the Bobcats’ showing from last year, as his second squad captured a fourth-place finish this year.

“We can kind of judge our program on how we did last year compared to this year, and strength-wise the speed and agility of our linemen kind of shows we’re making progress,” Duncan added.

On that note, there was no move for Daniel in the standings this year, as the Lions finished in second place for the second time in as many years.

However, Lions offensive line coach Jamie Wilson said he noticed a big change in his group this time around.

“These guys are tighter together than any guys we’ve got,” Wilson said. “Last year our wide receivers were really together, and our linemen weren’t, but it’s not like that this year.”

Instead, Wilson said both his offensive line and the team as a whole are growing close, as many of the Lions’ skill players even came out early in the day to cheer on their teammates.

“They didn’t have to come over here,” Wilson said. “This is team building, and I’m happy with the effort we showed today.”

And that is really what the Hawg-Tuff Lineman Challenge is all about.

Hawg-Tuff Lineman Challenge team results

1. Blue Ridge 95

2. Daniel (1) 84 (tiebreaker)

3. Seneca (1) 84

4. Seneca (2) 79

5. McCormick 59

6. Walhalla 55

7. Wren 49

8. West-Oak 46

9. Daniel (2) 39

10. Dixie 33

11. Crescent 31

12. Woodmont 20