Inaugural camp kicks off

More than 60 kids taking part at the high school

Harold Soule is all smiles during a drill at the first-ever Warrior Youth Football Camp. For more photos, go to triplicate.com/photos. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Since Monday, the Warrior Youth Football Camp, sponsored by the DNHS Football Booster Club, has been taking place at the high school. The camp concludes today.

“It’s been going really good,” Tanner Nelson, 11, said. “They give you a lot of things to learn, which you can remember and use when you get to high school.”

To his knowledge, Warrior varsity football head coach Ray Rook said that this is the first year the team has helped put on a football camp.

While there are several coaches from the Del Norte football staff helping out, the majority of the hands-on training is being done by 14 members of the Warriors football squad.

“It’s a great opportunity for our youth to come in and learn,” Rook said. “But it also gives our players a great chance to teach what they have learned in their time here.”

“It’s easy to learn,” Colson Turner, 11, said. “They are nice about it and they know a lot of stuff.”

Cori Allen, president of the Warrior football booster club, said she has pushed for a while to have a camp like this.

She is ecstatic that it has finally become a reality.

“I’ve seen a lot of smiles on their faces and I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback,” she said. “It’s something they are going to remember for the rest of their lives.”

Rook said the key organizer on the coaching end has been junior varsity assistant coach Mike Coopman, “who has run with it” and done a terrific job with the camp.

With Rook in the middle of summer weightlifting training, he said all the help from coaches and others to make this camp run has been invaluable.

Coopman said that the camp has far exceeded his expectations, especially with attedance. Orignally he had hope for 30-40 kids and was pleased to find 62 youths ages 8-14 at the start of camp Monday.

“It’s been a successful thing so far,” Coopman said. “There’s been nothing but smiles and laughs.”

When asked the key reason for such a great start, Coopman said he believes that it boils down to “our local love of football .... and the way we live, breathe and eat football around here.”

While there is a vast difference in ability, from kids who have never played before to those with years of experience, Coopman said that they all have been quick learners.

“They have outdone what I think they could do with their ability to learn the drills,” he said. Coopman said that the  high school players have done a great job working with the kids and showing them what they need to know.

“They have been juggling everything well like a true coaching staff,” he said.

O.J. Calleja, 9, said that he has learned a lot in his few days at camp.

“I’ve learned when you’re a running back to keep your feet moving all the time,” he said.

He also likes the defensive part of the game.

“I like that you get to tackle people and it’s fun,” Calleja said.