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Post by coachcb on Mar 25, 2011 9:10:37 GMT -6
There are two 8-man team camps a few hours away from our school in the beginning of June and July. We really need to get a team up there but it's already turning into a friggin' headache.
1. I have been to over a dozen team camps and the school has always provided transportation if the camp was out of town. Our AD won't do that; he doesn't want the liability. This is a serious issue as most of our kids don't have a driver's license. They live on a reservation and you don't need one to drive down here.
2. The AD expects us to fund raise to come up with the money to pay for transportation and to help kids pay for the team camp. Now, this isn't unreasonable in most situations but most of our kids/parents have stated that they expect us to pick up most of the tab for the camp. Plus, I have NO idea how we'll come up with enough cash to pay form a bus.
3. I have handed out a ton of fliers for the camp and have only gotten a commitment from two of our kids from last year. Everyone else is hemming and hawing.
So, I am kind of at a loss right now. Honestly, even if we had interest from the kids, getting transportation to the camp would be a deal breaker. I am seriously debating about just scrapping the whole friggin' thing. My original plan was to take a part-time job here on campus this summer so that I could make all these camps but I'm really thinking about finding full-time employment.
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Post by superpower on Mar 25, 2011 9:22:09 GMT -6
I know many will disagree with me, but I think these team camps are over-rated. We don't attend them for a variety of reasons, but it doesn't hold us back. We have made the playoffs for the past 4 seasons, making the quarterfinals 2 years ago and the semi-finals a year ago. We ask our kids to give us an hour in the weightroom 4 times a week for 9 or 10 weeks in the summer. That is the only summer expectation that we have except for our one-week installation camp at our place.
I realize that the team camps work for many, but I don't think they are all that important in the long run.
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Post by blb on Mar 25, 2011 9:30:02 GMT -6
Took kids to out-of-town camps for a few years.
When we were doing Football it was good.
Everything else - the money, making sure we had enough drivers, chaperoning-supervising the kids away from the field, time away from home, etc. - was a hassle.
So now we just do our camp and call it good.
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Post by coachcb on Mar 25, 2011 9:46:58 GMT -6
I would much rather just do our own camp in July.
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Post by coachcb on Mar 25, 2011 10:15:34 GMT -6
I love team camps but this whole thing really has me p-ssed off. Especially the whole transportation; we'll probably only get enough guys to fill a 'short-bus' and my assistant and I will drive and chaperon. But, mt AD is being a yutz about the whole thing.
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scatter
Sophomore Member
Posts: 189
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Post by scatter on Mar 25, 2011 11:43:50 GMT -6
Do you own camp; you'll never look back.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 27, 2011 12:07:32 GMT -6
We've started doing our own and it has worked out well. It is a bit of a headache, but worth it for us. We pay for t-shirts, and all of the insurance liability we can find. We also have to pay for custodial since camps tend to leave a mess.
We run it for four days, and keep it an "at cost" camp. So we charge $20 a kid. It fundraises about $2-3 per kid, which we use to offset kids in our own program that have trouble with $$$.
We run it more like a "training camp" meaning that only the last 30 minutes of each 4-hour camp day is structured. Each team is given a portion of our campus, and they basically run a full-practice. Some coaches setup their own group work drills vs other teams, like inside run or 7 on 7. Then, all teams are allowed to 11on11 the last 30 minutes of the night.
Each coach decides how much contact they want, and there are 1-2 coaches that don't want any at all. They just want the time with their own players and their own staff. We had 6 teams come last year, and all were happy. Best of all, they were all local, so busses and food and such wasn't a problem.
My suggestion: If you are close with a couple of other coaches, get together and brainstorm ideas to make something like this happen. As much as I would love to go to a college camp, or an organized camp, 95% of our kids just can't afford to pay $100-300.
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Post by op4shadow on Mar 27, 2011 12:36:13 GMT -6
We've started doing our own and it has worked out well. It is a bit of a headache, but worth it for us. We pay for t-shirts, and all of the insurance liability we can find. We also have to pay for custodial since camps tend to leave a mess. We run it for four days, and keep it an "at cost" camp. So we charge $20 a kid. It fundraises about $2-3 per kid, which we use to offset kids in our own program that have trouble with $$$. We run it more like a "training camp" meaning that only the last 30 minutes of each 4-hour camp day is structured. Each team is given a portion of our campus, and they basically run a full-practice. Some coaches setup their own group work drills vs other teams, like inside run or 7 on 7. Then, all teams are allowed to 11on11 the last 30 minutes of the night. Each coach decides how much contact they want, and there are 1-2 coaches that don't want any at all. They just want the time with their own players and their own staff. We had 6 teams come last year, and all were happy. Best of all, they were all local, so busses and food and such wasn't a problem. My suggestion: If you are close with a couple of other coaches, get together and brainstorm ideas to make something like this happen. As much as I would love to go to a college camp, or an organized camp, 95% of our kids just can't afford to pay $100-300. agreed. our school has done this for the past couple of years, and it has worked out great. ours had 8 teams, and ran really well. only difference is that in PA, you're not allowed any contact, so the end of the days were typically geared toward 7 on 7. at least with running your own camp, you can focus on the things you are actually going to use. most of the team camps i've been to had several issues such as slightly different terminology, things we didn't use, and sometimes even techniques that were taught poorly. do it yourself so that it gets done right. |
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Post by coachjd on Mar 27, 2011 12:53:15 GMT -6
We used to go to team camp each summer. It had amazing results with our team and our play, but as we went each year we found that we were losing losing the borderline kids who were good football players, but football was their #2 or #3 sport. They assumed that if they did not go to camp they would not play in the fall. We tried to bring it back for this summer and told the kids and parents this is something we would like to do 1x every 2 - 3 years. Having the opportunity to go away with your teammates for 3 days and play football etc....
We were unable to make it work. It just seems kids and families are so busy that we could not find 24 kids to go to the 3 team camps dates in our area. Family reunions, weddings, vacations, just did not allow us to make it work.
Part of me is kinda disappointed, but part of me is ok with this and we will do our own 3 day camp again the last week of July. This will allow all of our kids 9-12 to participate.
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Post by redandwhite on Mar 27, 2011 13:17:31 GMT -6
We have gone to a Team Camp at each of the last two schools I've been at, over the last 10-12 years. We went to the U of South Dakota for most of that time, and South Dakota State currently. We have been very fortunate with numbers (last year over 50 Varsity players and 27 sophomores). Both schools do a good job of keeping it affordable ($160 I believe). We would never NOT do it anymore - the amount of football you get in together with the team bonding aspect is an incredible way to jumpstart the season. We then also have a two day, 3 hour a day camp on our campus the last week of July for those who are unable to attend the College Team Camp. Our players and parents really look forward to it, and start asking about it in early January!
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Post by coachbdud on Mar 27, 2011 13:33:46 GMT -6
when you are unhappy with team camps do what I am doing this summer...
MAKE YOUR OWN!
pretty easy if you can handle the paperwork/cya aspect of it all. You can make it free for your kids and actually turn a small profit if you can get teams to show up, I am sure there are other teams around you who are looking for a place to go for cheap
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Post by coachd5085 on Mar 27, 2011 13:39:29 GMT -6
What exactly happens at a "team camp" Not familiar with them. We "went to camp" to start our season each year, but that was simply the first days of practice of our season at a site with boarding capabilities.
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Post by coachplaa on Mar 27, 2011 16:27:05 GMT -6
We used to go through circuits with other teams, but never were we 100% happy with terminology/technique that was taught. Most of it was great, some I wasn't comfortable with. CIF bylaws (CA) simply say there must be at least 4 teams to qualify a full-contact team camp. The one thing everyone is concerned about is injury in the summer. So we put our kids in full gear, get them used to our practice routine, and they we try to get a about 20 plays of scrimmage time in each night. It isn't much at all, but it is enough for me. We run our base plays once each, film the heck out of them, and then teach up the team the next day before camp. Every school that attends is happy because their own staff is coaching up their own team. We sometimes have schools that want MORE contact than just 20-30 minutes a night, and if that is the case, we are flexible enough to let them figure that out on their own.
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Post by coachcb on Mar 27, 2011 17:43:00 GMT -6
I really want to do the team camps because it would be great if the guys could go, compete and have success against other schools before the season starts. But, I think it really is nothing more than a pipe dream at this point. I handed out fliers and talked to 30+ kids (small school) last week and I was very disappointed. I couldn't get a firm commitment out of anybody; I heard a whole lot of excuses. Everyone of them asked me if the school was going to pay for it. I'm not going to fork over the cash for fund raising if the no one is going to commit to it.
I am going to look into setting up our own camp but I am jumping to DEFCON 5 before hand. I am thinking of holding a football meeting and handing out contracts to the kids. The contracts are going to be pretty simple; we need 16 kids committed and eligible for next season or we consider shutting down football. The contract will include pledges to show up 2-a-days on time, attend a minimal amount of weight training in the summer and remind them of the academic eligibility policy. It's pretty friggin simple; I don't get 16 singed contracts by the end of the year and we can football.
This is pretty drastic but I honestly feel that we are at this point in the program. These kids need to start taking some responsibility over the future of football in school. We are the third largest school in our class IN THE STATE; 120 kids in the school and I have to fight to get a dozen out for football. Well, let me rephrase that, I struggle to get 12 eligible kids out for ball. I'll have 20 of them show up for camp but half will have bombed their last quarter of school.
A coach in our conference laid it out to me at a clinic a few weeks ago. He said, "Coach, you are either going to have one of the best programs in the state within a few years or you're not going to have one at all."
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Post by blb on Mar 27, 2011 17:57:34 GMT -6
cb, I give out fliers for our camp mid-March too (between Winter and Spring sports) but I very seldom get any apps-fees until after our Sign-up meeting (Wednesday after Memorial Day) when I give them ANOTHER copy.
And we always get a dozen or so after the deadline (two weeks before camp) including morning of first day.
It's just the way teenagers (and perhaps parents who hold the purse strings) are.
So I wouldn't be completely discouraged at this point.
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Post by coachcb on Mar 27, 2011 19:04:49 GMT -6
cb, I give out fliers for our camp mid-March too (between Winter and Spring sports) but I very seldom get any apps-fees until after our Sign-up meeting (Wednesday after Memorial Day) when I give them ANOTHER copy. And we always get a dozen or so after the deadline (two weeks before camp) including morning of first day. It's just the way teenagers (and perhaps parents who hold the purse strings) are. So I wouldn't be completely discouraged at this point. Thanks coach; that's good to hear. I got a bit of information yesterday that has my friggin blood boiling. We're very, very good at basketball so I asked one of the assistants what they do in terms of attendance and holding kids accountable. He laughed at me; the HC doesn't have any sort of policy when it comes to practice. They come and go as they please; especially the studs. It's making life difficult. But, outside of all that, the fund raising is going to be a friggin nightmare. I need to sit down with my AD tomorrow and have a heart to heart. I KNOW that state is flexible with transportation to camps. Honestly, all we're going to need a small school bus (one that holds 16 passengers) and I'll drive and chaperon. Hell, I'll pay for the freakin gas. |
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