In a word: Wow! What a weekend! There was a ton of buildup
over the past two weeks, small details to take care of, people & vendors to
update – all sorts of stuff seemed to keep coming up. Not only are Coach
Suggett and I not professional event planners, but we’ve never run a camp
before and just thought someone should do it. Our goal was simple: Bring out
quality coaches and teach some finer points of the game to willing players in
order to increase the level of the women’s game. We wanted to offer it at a
reasonable price ($20 this year for 12 hours of instruction!) and add value by
including t-shirts in that $20 and bringing in lunches, a trainer and our team
masseuse. I have to believe our goals were met.
We had 52 players and two visiting (non-instructing) coaches
attend the camp. Add to that 11 instructing coaches, a full support staff of
field and registration helpers and I was just overwhelmed at the amount of help
that we had. Obviously, with charging only $20 this was not going to be a
money-maker for anyone and it was never intended to be. But we wanted to be
able to reimburse our travelling coaches for some of their costs and weren’t
able to do that to Mike and I’s satisfaction this year. So next year it will
cost more for sure. But probably still only 20% of what USA Football is
charging for their camp, and the promise remains the same – everything left
over after expenses will go back to the travelling coaches.
So for the camp itself…..what a great time! Two of the
coaches, Angel Rivera and Billy Hughes, I hadn’t seen in a while; Billy in 2013
and Angel not since 2012. They of course fit in like family and as coaches
universally do, it wasn’t long before the jokes were flying. But besides that,
they are just excellent teachers. Angel is such a great teacher of technique in
a very technique-intensive position (DB’s) and I’m not sure I’ve seen any
better DB coaches who weren’t getting paid lots of money. He is also on point
with his speed and agility training. You should check out All Out Sports Training when you
get a chance.
Billy and I teach 95% the same techniques and concepts, but
as usually happens, we use different terminology. But we were both scribbling notes
when attending each other’s classes and field sessions and it was great to
trade tips with a guy who has “been there and done that” at the highest levels.
He is going to have the Dallas Elite back into contending status as their OC
this year for sure.
I hadn’t met either of the Utah Falconz coaches before, but
from seeing that team on film, I knew they were good and I wasn’t disappointed!
Rick Rasmussen (HC) and Mike Ramos (DC) were top-notch teachers, with passion
and intensity. They, too, freely shared their knowledge knowing very well that
we would probably be across the field from them at some point.
The coaches are only a small part of what made this camp
great. The Surge and the Falconz had the two largest groups of players at the
camp, and they went at it like true competitors. During the drill segments, the
more experienced players, no matter the team, were helping out the less
experienced, again no matter the team. I think that’s the way it should be.
During the more competitive segments (we had two OL/DL pass rush sessions, and
a modified 7-on-7 session) then they got after it! I know with the OL/DL group,
players were calling each other out, saying “Come on, let’s go! Let’s see what
you got!” and it was great fun.
We had those competitive sessions
filmed, along with some of the other field and classroom sessions and as soon
as we get everything figured out, we’ll post it on Hudl and I’ll post the link.
We also had our first tryout the week before the camp. We
had several rookies come out – more than we had on our team either of the last
two years, so we’re very encouraged by that. And a couple of them will contend
for starting spots almost right away – and those spots already have veterans in
them, so that should tell you something about the rookie’s ability.
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