A good day for football (Photo gallery)
Almost 50 players attend the Bulldog Football Camp
CRESTVIEW – What might have been the hottest day of the summer didn’t seem to bother the almost 50 young people that showed up at the Bulldog Football Camp on Friday.
“We had 47 or 48 (campers),” Crestview coach Matt Brunson said. “We had a good a turnout.
“We’ve had good numbers at our camps in the past and a lot of these guys were returners. They’ve come out and had a good time.”
Brunson did admit that the hot weather might have kept some would-be participants from coming out.
“With the heat index being above 100 it might have discouraged some,” he said.
Those that did come out seemed to enjoy themselves, and that included the Bulldog players.
“I just think it’s fun working with kids because I see they love the sport,” senior linebacker/offensive lineman Justin Mitchell said. “It helps to raise them at a young age to be good at what they love to do.”
Mitchell started playing football when he was the age of some of the younger campers. Helping with the camp revived some of his old memories.
“My parents started me playing football when I was seven,” he said. “They were trying to get me into everything I could do that was around town.
“It just makes me happy to see other kids doing what I was doing when I was younger.”
In the past, the football camp has been a two-day event featuring college coaches and players as well as high school coaches from other areas.
This year, due to the tight economy, Brunson decided to shake things up and offer the free half-day camp.
There was still plenty of coaching going on even with the shorter camp.
“We did the same things we always do,” Brunson said. “We teach them how to stretch. We teach them how to run faster with things they can work on, on their own such as agility and lateral movement.
“And then we give them an offensive position and a defensive position. We expose them to the weight room and then we let them play some football.”
During the games of touch football, Mitchell returned to his old position of quarterback.
“It reminded me of when I was younger because I played quarterback when I was in Pee Wee (football),” he said. “And then I gained some weight in middle school and I couldn’t do it any more.
“But I’ve always loved throwing the football because it gives you control of the game.”
Mitchell could tell the campers were interested in learning everything the Bulldog coaches and players could teach them.
“They seemed to catch on pretty quick to everything we were showing them,” he said, “and they seemed to appreciate what we were trying to teach them.”
Part of the fun of conducting camp each year for Brunson is in seeing how returning players develop from year-to-year.
“You can see a lot of these guys as they have progressed and gotten older, that they have retained some of the things they’ve learned and they are getting better each year,” Brunson said.
As campers and parents left the field at the end of the day, many stopped to thank Brunson and his staff for a great football experience.
“I think the kids enjoyed it, and the parents are grateful that we’ve done it,” Brunson said. “Everything was good.”
