Othello holds two-day youth football camp
Long term, the hope is to build the high school football program back to its glory days.
Short term, the idea is to increase the number of kids in the grid kids youth football program.
To aid in achieving the short term objective, Othello hosted its initial football camp for kids in grades three thru six Aug.1-3 at Scootney Fields.
“We are just trying something different this year,” Felipe Martinez said before the start of Tuesdays first camp session. “The whole goal of this is to try to get as many teams as we can.”
Last year, the grid kids program had two “A” teams of 5th and 6th graders and two “B” teams of 3rd and 4th graders. The goal of the two day summer camp was to build interest with the hope of having enough kids to have more teams this fall.
The two Othello teams compete with teams from Connell, Royal, Quincy and Ephrata during the fall football season.
Almost 30 kids showed up for the camp. The idea of the camp was to create two teams of equal ability. By watching the kids perform at different stations, the coaches could help divide the players into two groups with each group having some quarterbacks, some receivers, some running backs and some linemen. A blind draw of players might end up with one team lacking linemen or another team without a quarterback.
On Tuesday, the kids were asked to join an offensive group.
Linemen, went with Rob Simmons, receivers reported to Rigo Ozuna, quarterbacks were instructed by Felipe Martinez and Larry Gonzalez, and running backs were led by Oscar Casados. The kids rotated from group to group so they learned some skills for each position.
“There are several things we want to do here,” Ozuna said. “First, we want to learn skills. We have to develop skills to be competitive with the other teams. Second, we have to develop some competitiveness. That will make you guys better. And third, we want to have fun.”
Future quarterbacks were taught proper drop back passing technique. Running backs to be, were shown how to hold their hands to receive the hand-off from the quarterback.
The second day of camp was used to teach defensive skills with kids divided into linebackers, defensive linemen and defensive backs.
“We went over linebackers making sure they fill holes,” Ozuna said. “We taught our linemen how to swim and how to use power moves in the middle and the defensive backs were taught how to backpedal.”
The kids appeared to be learning skills as they braved the heat and smoke during the two-day camp.
“Over-all, we are happy with what we saw here,” Ozuna said. “I am comfortable with where we are at.”
Grid kids sign-ups will be held on Saturday, Aug. 12 from 9a.m. to noon, and on Tuesday, Aug.15 and Thursday, Aug. 17 from 5-8 p.m. at Wahitis Elementary School.