Last Wednesday through Friday, it looked like football season was already here. A group of 41 kids from second grade through eight participated in Howe Bullodgs Football Camp. The $25 entry fee collected by the athletic department went towards field upkeep. The program has had the camp in each of the last three years.
The first group of campers went through basic agility drills and learned proper techniques about the game of football. It was basically football 101 for the youngsters.
However, the older kids went through more strenuous workouts and even learned how to run a few plays.
Head Coach Zack Hudson was on-hand each day as well as his entire coaching staff. In small Texas towns, the head football coach is a pretty important person in town. Some of those coaches become unapproachable, but Hudson seems to be the opposite. He was seen interacting one-on-one to the youngest of athletes to the most seasoned. Hudson even received a few water balloons to the back from a few of his varsity players. Hudson, who is a defensive guru didn’t let the offensive balloon fight go uncontested.
But the players seemed to enjoy themselves and get acclimated to the process of sweating and learning the lingo of plays and snap counts and audibles.
A live wire for the past two camps has been Offensive Coordinator Dale West. West is an out-going polite young coach and his passion for what he does is infectious. His love for the kids is evident by spending only a few moments watching his interaction with them.
West has an offensive philosophy that loves to throw the football only in pregame warmups. In other words, he wants to run the ball 99.99 percent of the time, if not 100. Upon having the younger kids work on throwing drills, West jokingly said that some other coach must have put that in the camp. It wasn’t him.
The camp was held on the field at Bulldog Stadium which looks as good as it ever has in its 80 year history. Hudson, the ever so perfectionist said that it was down to eight weeds on the field.
Some of the newer coaches were seen in action for the first time and were impressive. New Defensive Coordinator Wes Rhoten taught a lot of sound fundamentals to the younger athletes, while Offensive Line Coach Richard McAdams work extensively with lineman in the older group. All in all, it seemed to be a successful camp for all involved.
