Shane Fidler is heading into his second year as Airport High School’s football coach and athletic director. In the build-up to the regular season’s kickoff, the school hosted a football camp free of charge for local youth.
Fidler had been told that five children attended a similar camp the school held the year before he took the Eagles’ head coaching job. But on Friday, July 12, around 175 attendees aged 5-12 populated Airport High School to learn new skills and build community around the sport.
Fidler said the purpose of Airport’s high school football camp was to enhance local youth players’ skill sets at no cost to their families, which differs from other camps around the state.
“There’s so many youth camps out there people try to do, and all they’re worried about is making money. They’re not really worried about connecting with the kids and giving them an opportunity to do something,” Fidler said. “We’re blessed with facilities and people at Airport High School, so we feel like it’s our service to the community to do this.”
Camp attendees were separated into smaller subdivisions by their age, and each age cohort rotated to different stations that were spread out across the school’s football field, indoor practice facility and weight room.
Some stations focused on specific football skills, such as catching passes, running, blocking and tackling. Others incorporated games, like dodgeball and tug-of-war, which were designed to maintain kids’ competitive edge in a fun way.
Ultimately, the goal of the camp is to teach younger players basic skills that will help them succeed on the gridiron.
“We teach them ball security. We teach them tackling [and] blocking. We use our indoor facility to teach them pro agility drills, stuff they can use at home. We take them in our weight room [and] show them how to properly do a push-up,” Fidler said. “We’re just trying to teach basic fundamentals so they can take it back to their youth programs and apply it.”
Each station was led by members of Airport High School’s coaching staff and some current players. Kailen Gillis, a rising sophomore who primarily plays right guard, said it was nice to give back to the community by helping with the camp.
“I was once in their shoes. I was a young kid trying to learn the game,” Gillis said. “It was good to get that experience with everybody else, all the other players, and stuff like that.”
Fidler echoed that sentiment, adding that camps like these help players remind themselves of their reasons for playing the sport.
“To watch [the players] work with [the children] right now, to teach and to communicate with those kids, it’s great,” Fidler said. “It’s fun, and it re-sparks that joy in you because you’ve got to remember high school football, we’re working year-round for 10 Friday nights – hopefully more. And for them to come out here, it helps them re-spark that ‘why’ – why they play the game.”
Airport football players were not the only people at the camp who were excited, though.
Joel and Erin Rimer signed up three of their kids – two twin sons and a daughter – for the first time. Erin said she and her husband found out about the camp through their daughter’s dance program, which was also run by Airport High School.
All three kids’ excitement for the camp gradually built throughout the day, Joel said.
“They were ecstatic. They were bugging us all day on coming out here,” Joel said. “[They] definitely [liked] the weight room. Jumping around on the blocks and stuff was what it seems like they’ve enjoyed the most.”
Clarissa McGuire, a mother of a camp participant, was already familiar with Airport High School’s football camp heading into this year, as her two oldest sons – one of whom plays on the school’s “C team” – attended the camp before last football season. She said she hopes the school puts on similar camps or extends this specific camp to be even longer.
“We want to petition for a week-long [version] of this,” McGuire said.
Findler said hosting this camp has helped Airport High School build relationships with families in the local community. He hopes those connections lead to a greater level of interactivity with the program, whether it be attending games in the fall or having campers eventually play on Airport’s varsity football team years in the future.
“Airport football was a once really proud program. It’s our job to get it back there,” Fidler said. “Kids getting excited about it is a good start.”