Summer camp

JEREMIAH BARTZ/Frontiersman sports editor

Monday is the first day of football practice for the prep squads of the Mat-Su Valley. The first day of practice, but not the first day of preparation.

If you ask most coaches when they start preparing for the season, they will tell you - the day after last season ended. The first team practice allowed by the Alaska Schools Activities Association may be Aug. 1 and the ASAA state championship game is Oct. 22, but the prep football in Alaska is no longer just a three-month sport. Coaches and players spend 12 months working toward the goal of playing on Oct. 22.

There are offseason workouts - running, plyometrics, dates in the weight room. There is the planning - coaches going through videotapes, playbooks and fine-tuning the X's and O's. And there are the football camps.

The offseson workout has always been a priority. Coaches would much rather see their starting fullback in the weight room, rather than on the couch with a bag of Doritos. But camps and clinics have also become important.

Camps and clinics provide athletes with opportunity. There is the chance to interact with college football coaches and play with and against talent from around the state, and in some cases, from across the country. Student-athletes have the opportunity to see different surroundings, and catch a glimpse of the college experience.

This summer the Palmer High School and Wasilla High School football programs traveled to camps in the Lower 48, while Colony High School hosted the All-Alaska Football Camp.

The Palmer and Wasilla programs brought nearly entire teams to camps in the Lower 48 for the first time. Rod Christiansen, head coach of the Moose football program for the last 11 seasons, said the timing was right to take a group of Palmer players to Western Washington University in Bellingham for the Vikings' team camp. Western Washington is also the home of a pair of former Moose standouts - defensive lineman Junior Aumavae and Joe Samuels. Both are on the Viking defense, and Aumavae is expected to start.

Christiansen said 24 Palmer players traveled to Washington for the camp. With a special group considered the corps of Palmer football, Christiansen said it was an easy decision to try and give the players an opportunity to attend the outside clinics.

"We have a pretty motivated group of guys that will be seniors, and we wanted them to go out and see what it was like out there," Christiansen said.

The chance for his players to see a different environment, rather than going to a camp right in their own backyard was also important to Christiansen.

"They get to see a college campus, and what football might be like in college," Christiansen said. "Most of these players going to the camp probably won't play college football, but a lot of them are going to go to college."

The Palmer players had the chance to stay on campus in the dorms, eat in the campus cafatieras and see life beyond high school. The group also toured the University of Washington football facilities, and some of his players had the chance to compete at other camps in the area.

Christiansen's logic was echoed by Wasilla High School head football coach Joe Gardner, who also took a group of Warrior football players outside for the first time. The Wasilla program hit camps at Montana State University in Bozeman, and Dickinson State (N.D.). Wasilla has a large group of seniors, and the Warrior coaching staff wanted to give the players an opportunity that is unique for the average Alaskan player.

"Our main idea was to give them a different look. Most of these kids have been to the local camps, but this year they got to see a couple different schools," Gardner said.

Proving timing is essential, Gardner not only chose a year in which the Warriors return a group of dedicated veterans, but he was able to map out a schedule where the program could hit multiple camps, and take advantage of 11 extra days of football.

"On an eight-game schedule, any bit of football helps," Gardner said.

Now going into the first day of official practice, Gardner sees the Warriors as 10 days ahead. The Warriors will debut a new offense when they take the field this season, and the coaching staff has already had an opportunity to work with the players in the new system.

"We've been able to implement our whole entire offense for the varsity kids," Gardner said.

In addition to attending the MSU-Bozeman and Dickinson State camps, Gardner also set-up a one-day clinic with his high school coach, Ed Rohloff.

Rohloff led Mile City High School to six Montana state championships, and to nine appearances in the championship game. Three of those state titles came during Gardner's playing days at Mile City. Rohloff, who retired last year as the winningest coach in state history at the prep level, ran the same offense Wasilla is implementing during his illustrious tenure. Gardner said having Rohloff, who knows the responsibilities for every position in the system, was imperative to both the coaches and players understanding the new offense. Gardner also had the opportunity to see how the offense has evolved since his playing days, and see the system from a different standpoint.

The jump that Wasilla now has on the 2005 season follows a trend in prep football. Most of the offseason camps hosted by colleges and private businesses are evolving into team camps. At team camps, the stress is the unit rather than the fundamentals for the individual. The Alll-Alaska Football Camp has also followed the trend. Started in 1992 as the All-Northwest Football Camp, a week-long clinic focusing on individual skills and hosted by Palmer High School, the camp is now a four-day team camp. Organizers bring as many as 20 college coaches from the Lower 48 to the Valley, and now cater to entire teams. The 2005 camp attracted more than 320 athletes from across the state. The college coaches at the Alaska camp, the college coaches assist the prep coaches in the teaching of the team's systems. Also popular in Alaska is the Wing-T camp hosted by Bartlett High School. Christiansen has taken his Palmer players to that camp for the last three years.

Christiansen said, even though his squad has benefited from the team camps, he still sees a need for the camps focusing on the individual skills. Early in the summer, Brian Derby, a former player and coach at the University of Hawaii, brought his lineman camp to Alaska for the first time. Derby held five sessions at Colony High School, and focused on the skills of the offensive lineman and tight end.

The availability of camps to the average player from the Valley has gone from nearly nonexistent to abundant in about a decade. There are more camps offered in Alaska, and programs are more eager to raise money to send their players outside for training.

Jason McCourt, the Warriors' defensive coordinator and a 1992 graduate of Wasilla High School, had the opportunity to attend a camp at Syracuse University during his high school career. McCourt recognized it as a rare chance for an Alaska to travel to an outside camp, but would have relished the opportunity to attend more camps as a student-athlete.

"As a quarterback (in the offseason), I could throw against the wall or play catch, but put me in a game situation and that's where I am going to improve," McCourt said.