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Football, school stressed at Ursuline football
The annual camp concludes today
By DAN HINER
At Ursuline High School’s annual youth football camp on Monday, campers of all ages didn’t just learn to develop on the field. Their coaches wanted them to develop as young adults.
Coaches from Youngstown State University, Malone, Slippery Rock and Ursuline were in attendance to help the young players improve their fundamentals through all-day workouts. The campers were timed in events such as the 40-yard dash, some agility drills and the broad jump.
“It’s probably kind of different for some of them due to the fact that they are very young,” Larry Kempe said. “We have 110 campers out here — anywhere from kindergarten to ninth grade. You got to make sure you’re paying attention to them, especially the younger ones, and just teach them and make sure they have fun.”
The participants in the camp had an opportunity to improve their skills in front of players and coaches from all levels, but the instructors didn’t want to simply focus on developing the young talent on the field — they wanted to stress the importance of developing off the field.
The camp featured several guest speakers including Youngstown State Offensive Line Coach Carmen Bricillo, Malone head coach Fred Thomas and Slippery Rock assistant coach Rob Skaricich.
The speakers talked to the players about the importance of a quality education and performing well in the classroom and the on the field.
Thomas told the players “you were put on this Earth to succeed.”
He later explained the campers will have to make decisions in their lives and they will have to learn to make decisions for themselves, and they should try to get the most out of every situation.
“If young people know they are hear to succeed, but it’s up to them, then the [ball is] in their court,” Thomas said. “They have to work to succeed—same thing on the football field. You go through life as a coach and you see guys that have all kinds of talent but they don’t reach their potential because they don’t take advantage of the day. They’re here to succeed, but [life’s] full of choices. People have choices to make. Do they do their best at everything or do they just skate by?
“And I think it’s important for young people to know that they have to do their best in the classroom, especially with their grades, because the sad part about our profession is you see great athletes but we can’t get them into school and we can’t recruit them.”
Skaricich said it’s important for adults and coaches to instill these lessons early in a child’s development.
“If they learn these lessons now, and they learn how to apply these lessons — not to just football but to everything they do in the classroom, relationships and every aspect of life — if they start to apply those lessons now, then they are going to be better off down the road,”
But it’s not just the youth players that are getting a chance to learn. Members of the Irish senior class were used as examples in all of the drills to show the youth players how each drill was done properly.
The student-athletes also interacted with the campers, and for Kempe, that was important for his current players and the future of the team.
“What I want to see with our senior players ... we get the players involved in community service, and this is a community service,” Kempe said. “You come out and you interact with these young kids because they were in that position at one time. I know a majority of our players were at this camp and somebody else, a senior, was talking to them.”
Ursuline will hold the final day of camp today on the school’s practice field.