2015 Camp Announcement

OK, I know this is a little later than last year, but we’ve got most of the groundwork done this time around. The 2^nd Annual RS Football Camp is slated for the weekend of November 13 through 15 (Friday night through Sunday afternoon). There’s nothing “official” going on Friday night, but if anyone gets in early and wants to talk some ball, we’ll be around. I’ll be setting up a Facebook event soon.

Here are the basic details:

Dates: November 14-15, 2015
Times: Saturday: 9:00 am to about 4:30 or 5:00 pm; Sunday: 8:00 am to about 3:00 pm
Place: Santana High School, Santee, CA

Cost: $40 per player or visiting (non-instructing) coach. Yes, this is more than we charged last year, but all profits still go to the coaches who will be travelling in to volunteer their time. There wasn’t enough to go around last time for all the work and expense they put in getting out here. $40 for about 15 hours of instruction? Find me a better deal anywhere!  :-)

Staff: Members of the San Diego Surge staff will be available. As with last year, we don’t want to make this about us – we want to draw from the best practices from as many sources as we can. If you consider yourself to be a great teacher, especially a great technician, then we’d like to talk to you. Please send me either a Facebook message or drop me an e-mail at kmring@gmail.com. Last year we had coaches from Utah and Dallas out. Those coaches are absolutely invited again but variety is good also!

This is a padded camp. You can attend without pads, but you’ll miss out on a lot of the fun. The OL/DL pass rush segments were intense last year, as was some of the 7-on-7 work. From the comments we had last year, we’re not doing too much in the classroom this time. Almost all of the camp will be done on the field. The closest we’ll get to a classroom is if part of a session is being done in the bleachers.

So – you’ve got four months to plan your San Diego in November vacation!

***

I was reminded Saturday night (not that I needed one, but this one was especially painful) that everything on offense starts with the offensive line. If you don’t have a decent one, it is really, really tough to get anything going on defense, especially when the opposing DL is pretty good.

My men’s team, of which I am the OC, got shut out, 21-0. I’ve gone through multiple seasons (like, the last three with the Surge) giving up fewer sacks than we did on Saturday. I dunno….10…12? Something ridiculous like that. We came out in a full slide protection because we were concerned about up-the-middle pressure. Didn’t work. We then decided that we would get more favorable matchups if we slid only one direction. Didn’t work. Then we went Big On Big – didn’t work. Finally, we did something I swore I’d never do, and that was max protect with both backs coming to the edge, and the entire OL blocking inside, like on a field goal. Still didn’t work. We got absolutely manhandled. Only when they put in their backups did we get any semblance of time.

It was embarrassing, and one of the longest games of my life. We had nothing in the run game either. Now, to be absolutely fair, there are things that happen in the men’s game that don’t normally happen in the women’s…..like, one of my guards I didn’t even know as a human being 48 hours before the game. The kid is full of heart and tenacity, but was just giving up way too much weight against a pretty good DT. My other guard is one of the nicest and most enthusiastic kids I’ve ever coached (and “kid” is a definite relative term here – they’re grown men), but in all honesty, I’m not sure he’s ever played the game before. I had him for three practices. Rookies I'm used to - I get them every year with the Surge, and one has started for me every game at LG this year. But I had her for 16 practices before our first game.

So….back to the recruiting trail I go. I’ve identified some things we can probably do next week (so if you’re reading this Ray, I got you!), but it’ll have to be done “in absentia” by my QB coach and OL coach, since I’ll be in Dallas.

***

All right then…..two great games this weekend, who you got? Chicago at DC, and the Surge at Dallas. I talked about those games last week.

There’s also the IWFL league championship (sorry, but I refuse to use the league’s pretentious “world championship” moniker) this weekend, the Utah Falconz vs the Pittsburgh Passion. I have no idea who will win, since I haven’t seen the Passion play. If Lisa Horton is out, I think it’ll be very tough for them, as she is pretty darn good. I think overall the Passion is a solid team, but let’s also remember that they were never able to get over the Boston/DC/Chicago hump, usually finishing third in their division when both Boston and DC were in there with them.

The Falconz are a pretty good team too – I think. They haven’t played anyone, even though according to them, they’ve been the underdog in at least three or four games. I have to laugh every time I see that type of talk. I expected them to contend in the WFA – and who knows – they might have been playing this weekend if they were in the WFA. Or maybe they would’ve been bounced out by now. No one really has any idea of how good they truly are. 

But I have plenty of friends over there, so I hope they do win, and then come over to the WFA next year.

In any case, good football is here and we should enjoy it!