Homegrown players coach at camp

PALMER — After 24 years and 23 All-Alaska Football Camps in the Mat-Su Valley, camp director Randy Klingenmeyer said he’s watched more than a few success stories unfold.

Take 2010 Colony graduates Del Ciucci and Matt Jaronik, for example. Both put their high school varsity experience to the test at the camp and ended up playing for Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, as wide receivers (Jaronik played quarterback at Colony his senior year). Ciucci will begin his second season as assistant coach at Bemidji State University in Minnesota this fall, and Jaronik will be coaching at Colony as the offensive coordinator this year.

Both young men were recruited to play college ball at camp, and each returned as a camp counselor/coach in 2013. Ciucci came back for a second year last season.

As a player at camp, Jaronik said he was able to get an idea of “what competition in Alaska was like” going into a given season, as well as what to expect from college coaches in the Lower 48. From camp, he was recruited to play at University of St. Mary in Kansas, but it “just wasn’t the right fit,” he said.

“As soon as you get (to college) there’s like a culture shock because you’re around people you’ve never played with before and you’re expected to mesh with them in those first few weeks,” Jaronik said. “In high school, I had played with most of those guys for six years before getting to the varsity level and becoming a whole team and understanding what (I) want to get out of (my) teammates.”

But Jaronik’s initial mismatch led to a conversation with Ciucci, who convinced him to join the Luther squad under coach Mike Durnin.

Durnin is now the assistant head coach at University of Dubuque, about 100 miles southeast of his former school, but continues to attend, coach and recruit at the Alaska camp. Though he or another recruiter from Dubuque may visit 20 camps a year nationwide, they pretty much always take one from Alaska, he said.

“You’re looking for athletic ability, you’re looking for willingness to learn, you’re looking for potential, whether that be size (or) speed, depending on the position,” Durnin said. “They have to have a real willingness to basically leave (their home) state and say ‘hey I wanna get an education and I wanna keep playing football.’ That’s the main thing we’re looking for.”

Durnin’s assistant coach at Luther saw those things in Ciucci — and eventually Jaronik — and Durnin was not disappointed. And after the players’ graduation, Durnin helped Ciucci into the position at Bemidji.

“Now my job is to help him keep in the business,” Durnin said.

That may also be the responsibility of Presentation College’s head coach, Andy Carr, for 2011 Colony graduate Anthony Bricker, who was a camp counselor for the second time this weekend.

Bricker attended the All-Alaska camp all four years of high school, and met then-Lewis and Clark College coach Meadow Lemon there prior to signing with the team at the end of his senior year.

After his first season at Lewis and Clark, Bricker, like Jaronik, decided his college of choice wasn’t as good of a fit as he initially thought. But he soon found a home at Presentation in Aberdeen, South Dakota, under Coach Carr, whom he had also met at camp.

“Going to this camp, you get those connections with all the coaches, so you get that network,” Bricker said. “Without this camp, there’s very limited opportunity to meet with a college coaches in Alaska.”

‘It’s not just about football’

Now that Bricker is a seasoned camp counselor himself, he’s been able to give back the knowledge he’s gained over the last several years, and learn even more. Transitioning from player to coach and back again isn’t easy, he said, but has taught him his own sport from all angles.

“You have to like turn your brain a complete 180,” Bricker said, of the transition to coaching. “(It’s) kinda hard as an athlete to explain what you do instead of (saying) ‘oh just watch me do it.’

“You also have to relate with the kids, you have to find a way to embed (a skill) into their mind,” he added. “If they already have something set in their mind, they’re just gonna think about that, they’re not gonna think about what you’re saying.”

Klingenmeyer said he was impressed with how far Bricker has come.

“It’s amazing how he has changed, how he’s grown — in stature and in how he’s become a young man,” Klingenmeyer said.

And that maturation of character, ideally, is something student-athletes will start to experience at AFC.

“It’s not just about football, it’s about preparing for life and the rigors of everyday life,” Klingenmeyer said.

Durnin agreed, adding that football, at any level, is multi-faceted for the ones in charge.

“Coaching is coaching,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re a high school coach, a junior high coach, an NFL coach — you’re teaching technique, you’re teaching life lessons, you’re in a relationship with those players.”

More than 300 high school athletes attended the four-day camp this weekend at Colony High School, getting exposure to football players from around the state and coaches from around the country, Klingenmeyer said. Present were 25 coaches representing 17 colleges and universities, plus various high school coaches. For most Alaskan football players, AFC is their one shot all year to make their skills count.

“When great preparation and opportunity meet, great things happen, and that’s what this (camp) is about,” Klingenmeyer said.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.