Team Camp At High School

I did it my very first year of coaching. The biggest thing that we had to plan for was food. Fortunately, parents were willing to help and they did a great job. I charged each player $50 for food. It was way more than we needed. (light)breakfast/lunch/dinner/evening snack. The other thing was where to bed down. We actually had sleeping bags/air mattresses/etc. in the gym. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was a little hot during the day. At night it cooled down relatively well. Not sure where you are located, but that is something to consider. I had a classroom (film area) set up on the other side of the gym and we watched film for a while, but we also showed motivational movies/clips as well.

Schedule was set up the same as any team camp. 8-11; 12-lunch; 1:30-4; 5-dinner; 6:30-8 (7 on 7 or team session); 9-order pizza/team snack time; 10pm-coach time; 11 or 11:30 lights out. Times can vary depending on what you'd like to do.

We only went for three days. That was about as much as I could handle. I now go to a local college for team camp. Though it costs more, it takes a lot of the worry off of my shoulders.

I appreciate the advice.

Ahh, team camp in the cafeteria.
-getting the trots from eating the food
-or being stove up from the food
-having to trying beat the HC to sleep because he sounded like somebody trying to pull start a flooded chain saw when snored
-not getting any sleep while trying to keep kids from 'going over the wall' at night
-sleeping on the floor for a week
-taking a shower with all the coaches and wondering why coach x doesn't have a line of chicks waiting on him

How about this...we go to a local camp ground for the first week of practice. In this area almost every school use to do it, now there are only a handful.

Best thing we do as a team. Just the bonding that goes on with the kids is well worth it.

We actually give up a lot of stuff our boosters could buy us in order to pay for camp.

Besides the PITA of logistics including supplies, money, and paperwork - I don't see how sketchy food and bad sleep is going to lead to productive Pre-Season practices.

Our kids "bond" all Summer in the weight room and on the track. If they were together "24/7" it might be case of "familiarity breeding contempt."

Besides, I spend enough time away from my family because of coaching as it is. I like my players and coaches, but I love my wife.

And when I was coaching in college I didn't even like spending a couple nights a week sleeping in the dorm during Two-a-days on supervision duty. Sure as heck not going to sign myself up for it now. We don't even go to an out-of-town Summer camp as we did for a few years anymore.

When we're done with practice at 3 PM we can all resume our "normal" lives until the next morning.

My thoughts exactly! Sounds like a lot of fun to me! I like being around the kids and it might have some benefit of team bonding, BUT they will be around each other enough during the summer that I think we can accomplish that adequately enough.

I agree having a team camp at the school is some work logistics- wise. Within our district, for paperwork, the only necessary form was one that reserved the facilities we needed: commons (for sleeping), cafeteria (for meals), library (for meetings), practice field, and locker rooms.

We also reserved a pool for the day which I needed a lifeguard for...one of our players had his certification because he was a swimmer also. I just made two copies of his card and we were all set there.

The only other paperwork we had was for those kids that showed up to camp with NO physical (this is such a PITA). The last three years now, I had a P.A. on site the day of camp check in to do physicals for kids who didn't have one.

So we had physical forms and release forms for parents to sign that said they consented to have the P.A. perform the physical. Other than that, paperwork-wise, it was relatively simple.

In terms of food, we would charge the kids $60 which we said was $12 per day for the 5 days. They had the opportunity to work fundraisers throughout the summer to help raise the money for their camp food. I don't know about you guys, but our kids come from, in the majority of cases, horrible backgrounds. We were a 70% free or reduced lunch district.

These are kids that don't understand the concept of "seconds" at meals, three squares a day, consistent hygiene, manners, etc. Bottom line...many of our guys come to us hungry, dirty, improper, and, not to mention, with all sorts of emotional baggage because of drunk, absent parents etc.

So what we were able to provide them in terms of food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack), free showers, reminding them of manners when interacting with the parents and other volunteers who did help out with meal preparation and serving, and a secure, stable environment were nowhere near sketchy by any means.

The experience from an essentials perspective was priceless and the players were extremely thankful for that time despite the demands that were put on them.

Bad sleep is another false con in my opinion. This theory, of course, means we coaches must believe that our players have the will power to avoid excessive use of cell phones, facebook, x box, and playstation in their electronic fortress otherwise known as their room into the late hours of the evening to make that early practice.

Kids don't eat well but they have stuff to be entertained. In Michigan, it's call a Bridge Card which allows their parents to purchase food (basically welfare). This allows any cash earned to be saved for stuff to be entertained with.

Don't understand it...read A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne. Basically, life sucks when you're poor so you feel a need to be entertained as much as possible. Get what you need in terms of the absolute essentials and no more, so that you have extra to pay for the entertainment mediums.

Bottom line here...we can regulate their sleep and teach them the value of sleep while doing it. A lot of times, if kids are just out of the hair of their parents, their parents don't care what they're doing. I know there are coaches who understand the circumstances I've explained here. If not, you just haven't coached in that kind of environment.

Also, from a transportation perspective, with gas being almost $4.00 a gallon in Michigan, asking parents to bring their kids out each day is not always the most realistic option. We have a district that is 30 square miles in northern Michigan.

Asking parents to transport their kids to and from practice each day is quite a financial commitment. A commitment that could potentially keep our kids from coming out for football period. Get them there once and get as much work done as possible is the idea of camp. It works but you have to believe in it.



What if not all of your players show up to the weight room throughout the summer? Sometimes you have players that regardless of how hard some of their position competition works over the summer they will not be better than the kid who is not there.

What do we do as coaches? We play the best players right assuming there are no coachability issues with the kid or whatever. But that doesn't mean that there is a bond there. He wasn't out all summer.

The hard working studs that were out all summer know they need him to reach the level of success they strive toward but they don't trust him, believe in him, have a significant bond with him.

What a situation to be in in? You know you NEED somebody to accomplish your goals but you don't completely trust the person. Your options? Take your chances with the unproven guy or work with the one that does not have the ability to get the job done? Great options

As coaches, we have a responsibility to create an environment where that can be cultivated. That doesn't always happen on the practice field because it's always business out there. Team activities for camaraderie are not the focus at that point. You can have those activities at camp. Yeah you can do those activities outside of practice without a camp too.

But at camp they live with each other too. You learn a lot about a person when you live with them. Why do so many people nowadays shack up with people their dating before they get married? To find out what the baggage is and see if they can live with it.

Camp gives our players time to overcome the baggage together and, in some cases, players set it aside. Now you're becoming a team. We may not be the most talented but we are coming together as a team.

"Familiarity breeding contempt" is possible but the likelihood that it could occur is certainly not a reason that I believe should warrant a coach to have or not have a camp. They could grow to despise one another at practice. Should we scrap that too? I didn't think so.



Normal? Does any person who participates in or coaches football understand the concept of a "normal" life? Kids are out in June and July of their SUMMER working in the weight room to get better and coaches are there motivating players to continue to give their best effort.

Most of those same kids are working a summer job so they can do some things they want to do in their "normal" life. In August of their SUMMER, they're working hard at practice and coaches are investing hours upon hours during and outside of practice to get them prepared. All the while, sacrificing family to get the job done.

The football life, any time of year...any time of day, is not normal no matter how you slice it. Those of us in football love it. You have to in order to continue to put yourself through it. But that in no way means it's normal. We try to make ourselves feel normal but we're not. But it's okay. Better to be passionate about something than not give a $#!t about anything.

Like anything that involves teams competing against one another, it's a dynamic situation and no single factor is going to be to credit for the game. But some teams are up against it more than others as events transpire. Injuries, inexperience, and better opposing players are difficult factors to overcome in order to win.

- “...We lost our starting running back in five plays, then we started scrambling, putting kids in different spots. One starter lost turned into three starters lost."

- “...we have some kids that haven’t played varsity yet.”

- "...They’ve got big, athletic kids.”

So often, kids are quick to credit the result of games to their unparalleled work ethic. Sometimes that's true and, unfortunately, sometimes it's not.

They are rarely willing to credit games to the fact that they are flat out better than the other team they are up against. Or that the factors that other teams would have to overcome in order to beat them are so desperately challenging either during the game or even coming into the season.

It sounds like excuses but, it's true, not all programs are created equal. We find ways to close the gap in talent by developing our players, hosting camps, and coaching better (WORKING HARD). Sometimes we can overcome that gap and sometimes we can't. I just feel like the discussion is shifting away from camp.

Where I'm heading, we are not running a camp of any length during the first week of practice. We are running a more conventional two-a-days format. It's what's been done, it's been successful and it works. My DC is a farmer and he will not be able to make practice in a camp type format.

So the fact that it doesn't need to be done to win there and my first assistant couldn't do it necessitated an adjustment. It's fine. There were pros and cons to the camp setting and there are pros and cons to the two-a-days format.

It's a small district geographically so transportation won't be an issue and a culture exists where the upperclassmen understand how important the future of the program is so they make sure to get the younger kids to the weight room over the summer and home from practice during the season if there's a need.

These kids play sports together all throughout the year. We have many more three sport athletes so they "bond" all year long. That wasn't the case at the previous place. My previous school was a small school that shrunk and never eliminated options for sports. The spring count for the high school was 391. Sports options for boys at that school include:

Fall - Football, Soccer, Cross Country

Winter - Basketball, Wrestling, Swimming

Spring - Baseball, Track

The culture at the new school I'm heading to is just different. I'm leaving a community that is an up north resort town where the beach bum mentality is rampant. I'm heading to a farm community where a blue collar mentality is much more prevalent.

The town I'm leaving has soccer in the fall and a contingent that encourages participation in it. So there are other options. Where I'm heading, there is no soccer, if you play a fall sport, you play football. Boys grow up playing football.

Conditions exist that are going to allow our program to be successful. We have the talent to compete at this school. We also have a number of experienced coaches that far exceeds the number and experience levels of the coaching staffs I've had in the past.

Better culture, better players, better coaches, and a supportive community where football is IT will certainly mean our program will be better than I'm accustomed to. Many factors that we'd try to address during a camp are already present. This means we don't have to commit MORE time to cultivating them during a camp...so we do it other ways. Simple.

I understand the caliber of program you were up against. But if your school has the horses that year, plays well on that particular night, and has some things go it's way...anything can happen. Which it did indeed.



Bonding can happen in other situations but "sleep-overs" as you put it are certainly a concerted attempt on the part of the coaching staff to address the issue of team bonding. That's all coaches can do is address as many of the factors that could potentially lead their team to success especially when the team lacks talent.

Bonding for teams that are bound for success because of their talent will more than likely happen regardless. Reason being... they are going to win. Winning is the number one glue to create a solid team bond. Winning has a way of making everything else fall into place. Just like losing has a way of tearing teams apart at the seams.

I mean everybody is on board when things are going well no matter how they feel about their teammates and coaches. This is another chicken or the egg issue. Does talent create winning which forms a bond? Or does a bond create winning for the talented team?

I think what needs to be considered is that coaches try to address every factor that could potentially influence the team's success. Talent is not one of them. You have what you have. You work to increase the ability levels of your players but that's all you can do.



I think some coaches look at it that way. But some coaches view their off-season programs as simply giving their players opportunities to improve because that's really what's happening. Assuming the players are taking advantage.

During that time, an attitude develops where the players take pride in what they're doing, what they're sacrificing to get better. The debate will always exist about the point of diminishing returns and whether to come up just short or hit it on the nose.

I think if players are allowed to let themselves believe they win because they are better than the other team then, naturally, that's what they're going to believe. And it may be true. But it'll eventually come back to bite them in the a$$ because only 8 teams a year in Michigan are state champions.

However, if the team understands what they did to prepare and understands that it probably was not the single most deciding factor but played a significant role...then that's what they'll believe. I believe that's important for a team of any talent level and especially teams that lack talent.

Untalented teams have to try to close the gap somehow because if we're not trying then what the heII are we doing? We're fielding teams that everybody else beats. We're there to compete and we'll do what we believe is necessary relative to our talent historically.

The question is "what's the right way to coach a team when you don't have the horses to compete?" You do what you need to do to compete. If the belief is that a camp will help your team to compete I believe you do it. There is a level of work that needs to be put in for any team to compete. Less talented teams have to work harder to have a chance to close the gap on their competition.

we went to camp last year and the kids absolutely loved it. The coaches kind of moaned and groaned, not the kids. They keep asking if we are going back this year. Personally I love it too, because for 4 days there is only football. We leave on Friday morning and are back by Monday afternoon. We are considered conditioning as we only are allowed to wear helmets.

In my opinion it is the only time your football team will be pure. No distractions, we have their undivided attention all that time.

As for the hazing incidents, we have NEVER had once incident of hazing in all the years I have been involved with going to camp, not once. The expectations are set for the players up front and most of the time they have lived up to them.

You may think that it has no effect, but I disagree. From my experience in every case it has been a positive and not a negative. It may be a bit of a PITA, but more than worth it in my opinion.