Football Camps

[turfjacket]

My son is a rising junior WR/OLB at a 6A high school in GA. He will be attending GT's camp in June and Georgia Southern's satellite camp at Lovejoy as well as one or two others. Today he is 6'1 and about 180. He ran his last timed 40 in 4.55. His goal is to attend these camps and bust his arse. If he gets a second look from a coach that would be great. If nothing else he'll gain some exposure to a few college camps and see how he stacks up with kids from all over.

 

[DaddyBill]

We did the summer camp run with my oldest grand, to two Power 5 schools and he did very well at both. He was a soph in high school the first time and then a junior the second go-round. Funny but non of those schools made him an offer. Taking his younger brother (a rising senior) to two camps this summer, but they are not FCS schools. Since we are in south GA it seems to me a good way for them to at least get noticed. Along with going to the NIKE SPARQ combines. Yes, there is travel and expense involved but the one-day camps only cost around $40 to $65 each. If it somehow leads to a scholarship then it is well worth the investment.

 

[UgaBlows]

Thanks for taking the time to do this!

 

[Jacket Bracket]

Football camp is tomorrow! Pre-camp observations/comparisons:

Different requirements from each camp! (Reminder my son is a DE different positions = different requirements).

GT - Helmet, shoulder pads and turf shoes (hate to admit it, I had a hard time determining just what constitutes a turf shoe!!)

Clemson - Just cleats - but gave a very detailed breakdown of min by min camp agenda.

South Carolina - Helmet only. The least amount of communication from about the camp, but asked the most questions about my son pre-camp.

I'll post observations after each of the camps if you guys are interested.

 

[BBK]

Football camp is tomorrow! Pre-camp observations/comparisons:

Different requirements from each camp! (Reminder my son is a DE different positions = different requirements).

GT - Helmet, shoulder pads and turf shoes (hate to admit it, I had a hard time determining just what constitutes a turf shoe!!)

Clemson - Just cleats - but gave a very detailed breakdown of min by min camp agenda.

South Carolina - Helmet only. The least amount of communication from about the camp, but asked the most questions about my son pre-camp.

I'll post observations after each of the camps if you guys are interested.

May be wrong, but I think it is its own style of shoe. Has about a hundred tiny rubber spikes on the bottom instead of ten big cleats.

Oh, and thanks for the info!

 

[AE 87]

Football camp is tomorrow! Pre-camp observations/comparisons:

Different requirements from each camp! (Reminder my son is a DE different positions = different requirements).

GT - Helmet, shoulder pads and turf shoes (hate to admit it, I had a hard time determining just what constitutes a turf shoe!!)

Clemson - Just cleats - but gave a very detailed breakdown of min by min camp agenda.

South Carolina - Helmet only. The least amount of communication from about the camp, but asked the most questions about my son pre-camp.

I'll post observations after each of the camps if you guys are interested.

This is great! Whatever insights, feedback you can give would be awesome. Maybe you can do some video on you phone?

 

[Jacket Bracket]

May be wrong, but I think it is its own style of shoe. Has about a hundred tiny rubber spikes on the bottom instead of ten big cleats.

You are right! I was trying to find a shoe that could also work on grass to prevent buying two sets of cleats! My sons HS is natural grass. No such luck.

 

[Techster]

The turf at GT's indoor facility is cleat playable...in fact, I think the players practice with regular cleats there. However, the staff may not want all those bodies wearing down the turf with regular cleats.

Most modern day turf fields are "cleat safe".

 

[Skeptic]

Football camp is tomorrow! Pre-camp observations/comparisons:

Different requirements from each camp! (Reminder my son is a DE different positions = different requirements).

GT - Helmet, shoulder pads and turf shoes (hate to admit it, I had a hard time determining just what constitutes a turf shoe!!)

Clemson - Just cleats - but gave a very detailed breakdown of min by min camp agenda.

South Carolina - Helmet only. The least amount of communication from about the camp, but asked the most questions about my son pre-camp.

I'll post observations after each of the camps if you guys are interested.

Good luck to your son and you. Both would be richly rewarded for your efforts with a scholarship. In different but still tangible ways. Yours being checkbook.

 

[Declinometer]

As old jacket said, there is a cost to attend. I believe they do have some invitation only camps later in the summer. Usually just for Junior and Seniors.

Like everything in this great country only those that can "afford" to pay actually pay!

 

[Buzz776g]

Will be watching this with interest.. Thanks for taking us "behind the scenes". Good luck to your son and to you!

 

[flea77]

regular football cleats are fine for the real and the fake stuff ...

 

[BUZZ NATION]

I noticed that the turf shoe market does not have much of a selection.

 

[Techster]

I noticed that the turf shoe market does not have much of a selection.

Not for football, but soccer turf shoes has a wide selection.

In fact, soccer cleats make really good football cleats for skill position players. They're lighter and designed for getting in and out of short spaces and balanced at different points. I know Nike and Adidas have to started to incorporate their soccer cleat designs into their football cleat designs because of that. I know a lot of skill position guys in the NFL use to wear soccer cleats instead of football cleats...and now the shoe companies are following with practical design concepts they used to only use for soccer cleats.

 

[Jacket Bracket]

OK -Here is my report.

Check in started at 1:00. Was a long process! Stood in line for nearly 2 hours. When we got through was measured and did verticle jump testing. I would imagine these number were not too accurate. Two hours in line with no stretching…so not so good.

We then went to indoor practice facility. It is an amazing facility!! If you haven't toured it, it's worth your time. CPJ welcomed players (by my estimate about 400!!). Then a great warm-up/ stretch. Followed by 40 times and a shuttle run. As I mentioned earlier we were asked to wear turf shoes, everyone quickly went to regular cleats. Glad we brought both because turf was slick without cleats. I thought times were slow until I saw 2 guys run sub 4.4 times.

Next we broke out into position groups. For the DL coach Pelton was leading. They divided into 4 stations each lead by coaches overseen by coach Pelton (one was lead by Adam Gotsis). Good drills made competitive with some contests.

This was followed by BBQ dinner and inspiring speech by Derrick Moore. This was worth the price of admission by it's self.

Then we bussed over to student activities field and put on shoulder pads and helmets. This was fun to watch! DL and OL started seperate then got brought together for 1 on 1 battles. The kids started hesitant and first but this didn't last long. The pads were popping and the boys were going hard and competing. Fun stuff!! This was the the end of camp day.

The best part of camp happened after this Gotsis spent about 15 min talking 1 on 1 with my son about how to attack OL and his strategy on game day. This was after camp was over. Awesome stuff there!! Made my son feel very special.

Overall some transportation issues and coordination problems but my son had a good time. Clemson starts tomorrow.

 

[SouthernJacket]

OK -Here is my report.

Check in started at 1:00. Was a long process! Stood in line for nearly 2 hours. When we got through was measured and did verticle jump testing. I would imagine these number were not too accurate. Two hours in line with no stretching…so not so good.

We then went to indoor practice facility. It is an amazing facility!! If you haven't toured it, it's worth your time. CPJ welcomed players (by my estimate about 400!!). Then a great warm-up/ stretch. Followed by 40 times and a shuttle run. As I mentioned earlier we were asked to wear turf shoes, everyone quickly went to regular cleats. Glad we brought both because turf was slick without cleats. I thought times were slow until I saw 2 guys run sub 4.4 times.

Next we broke out into position groups. For the DL coach Pelton was leading. They divided into 4 stations each lead by coaches overseen by coach Pelton (one was lead by Adam Gotsis). Good drills made competitive with some contests.

This was followed by BBQ dinner and inspiring speech by Derrick Moore. This was worth the price of admission by it's self.

Then we bussed over to student activities field and put on shoulder pads and helmets. This was fun to watch! DL and OL started seperate then got brought together for 1 on 1 battles. The kids started hesitant and first but this didn't last long. The pads were popping and the boys were going hard and competing. Fun stuff!! This was the the end of camp day.

The best part of camp happened after this Gotsis spent about 15 min talking 1 on 1 with my son about how to attack OL and his strategy on game day. This was after camp was over. Awesome stuff there!! Made my son feel very special.

Overall some transportation issues and coordination problems but my son had a good time. Clemson starts tomorrow.

Interesting stuff. Thanks for the report.

 

[Buzz776g]

Fascinating, thank you! Looking forward to Clemson's. Drive safely.

How awesome of Gotsis to spend time with your son. That's our guys.

 

[turfjacket]

I was there with my son too and Jacket Bracket gave a great assessment. I will add that it was GREAT to see ALL of the coaches there as well as numerous current and former players. I saw Snoddy working with RB's, Joe Ham with WR's, coach Roof giving one on one instruction to DB's during one on one drills and the list goes on. My son said he saw Joshua Nesbitt and Tevin Washington helping with drills. Joe Hamilton took the time to talk to him for about 5 minutes during one drill. I even saw a few players like Trey Klock and Matthew Jordan just there to watch. Very cool!

Another highlight for me was during the BBQ dinner at Russ Chandler they were showing a highlight film of last season on the big screen. I was standing next to big group of players including Snoddy. They were watching the video as if they were just fans like us. When a Snoddy highlight came up they would all point to him and get loud. Snoddy was very humble and even bashful about it. Good stuff.

 

[Minawreck]

Please inform us if Clemson provides super hot ladies to their summer football camps.

Sounds like you got to make some good memories with your son. Hopefully it leads to a bigger opportunity!

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I really love hearing about the involvement of past football players in these camps. I think that those guys can be some of the best recruiting ambassadors for the program. Imagine parents getting to meet guys like Nesbitt, Washington, and Roddy Jones. They can ask them about what they are up to after graduating from Tech and how the Institute set them up for their futures.

Same thing goes for the kinds of speeches Derrick Moore could give at these kind of events to demonstrate what Tech and its athletic program can do for a kid lucky enough to earn a scholarship.