GMC News

Solid week for youth football camp

(MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga.) – Quarterbacks, linebackers, and receivers – oh my!

A host of youth football players converged on the campus of Georgia Military College this week, as head junior college football coach Bert Williams and his staff held the 2nd Annual Junior Bulldog Day Camp.

Williams said the event has been a success thus far in the week.

“The camp is going great,” he said. “We’ve had really hot weather, but the kids have done a great job pushing through it. They are working hard, paying attention, and we can see them getting better. They are having a lot of fun out there.”

The camp kicked off Monday morning with 77 campers from a variety of different locales.

“We have kids from Jones County, Washington County, Wilkinson County, Baldwin County, and four or five from the Atlanta area,” Williams said. “We also have one camper, the grandson of Gen. Boylan [GMC president], who came all the way from Hawaii.”

The week’s activities have focused on teaching the fundamentals of football to the campers. For one session, general athletic stations were set up, teaching footwork, coordination, body control, and other related activities. Other sessions focus on position-specific drills, with each camper spending time at each position.

“On the offensive and defensive side of the ball with approach with the mindset that these kids do not know what their final position will be as they move up into high school,” Williams said. “On offense we run a lineman station, a receiver station, a running back station and a quarterback station. On defense, we have a tackling circuit, a lineman station, a linebacker station and a defensive back station.”

When all is said and done, each camper has an increased knowledge of all aspects of the game and, more importantly, they are all having fun.

“We want these kids to have fun playing football,” said Williams. “We keep it fun. We keep it energetic. We want them to compete with each other in a good, sportsmanlike way, and we want them to get better. We want them to take the learning from the first part of the week and build on it and use it as the week winds down.”

The campers will have an opportunity to use all of the skills they picked up over the week on Friday during the Iron Pup Challenge, an obstacle course of sorts.

“The Iron Pup Challenge is a series of events spread out over half of the football field,” Williams said. “It will test the campers strength a little bit, their endurance a little bit, speed a little bit, quickness, and athleticism. It is a good test. They have to push and work hard to complete it. It is like graduation at the end of the week. It is great to see the kids push through that.”

The Iron Pup Challenge is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Friday. The Youth Division (7-9) will kick off the event, with the Junior Division (10-11) and Senior Division (12-14) to follow. The event will be held on the lower practice fields on the campus of Georgia Military College.

Williams encourages everyone to come out and support the campers.

“These kids have worked hard all week, and it would be great to have all the parents, grandparents, and friends out here cheering them on,” he said. “I think they will be excited watching these kids do this challenge. It will be a lot of fun.”

xxxxxxxxxx

Contact:
Ross Couch
Media Relations
Georgia Military College
(478) 456-7561
rcouch@gmc.cc.ga.us