By RICHIE HALL
Beginning on Monday, the sounds of football will be heard at Grand Park.
The campus is hosting two camps over the next four weeks. First is the Grand Park 7-on-7 Football Camp, which is for players in grades 3-12. Then there is the Grand Park Lineman Camp, in which prospective linemen in grades 7-12 will work with former NFL players, including Indianapolis Colts star Robert Mathis.
Both camps take place on Mondays and Wednesdays. Session 1 is June 15 and 17, Sessions 2 takes place June 22 and 24, Session 3 is set for June 29 and July 1, and Session 4 wraps up the camps on July 6 and 8.
The intent of the camps is to allow young players to get back out on the field after having spent spring inside due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We wanted to make sure that we offered a camp that would allow kids to get out and just play and have some fun,” said Matt Trnian, the Facility Operations Manager at Grand Park. “We wanted to allow that avenue for those kids to partake in football activity before the season got started this upcoming fall.”
“Right now, we’re at about 300 registrations for camp,” said Trnian. “We are still anticipating a large group to still walk up. We are allowing walk-up registrations. At any point, kids are welcome to join. You can sign up for multiple weeks, or just one week at a time.”
Walk-up registration is available at the cost of $50 per week. Athletes can participate for as many weeks as they wish, from one week to all four.
“We wanted to make this as inclusive as possible,” said Trnian. “So we wanted to make sure that we allowed for folks that may have already had scheduled vacations to be able to still be a part of the camp.”
The camps will take place on three fields, F6, F7 and F8. That will allow for plenty of space for the athletes and coaches.
“We have the ability to spread out on our campus,” said Trnian. “We’re limiting the three fields that we are using at this time to 250 per time slot. So as of right now, I feel pretty good with where we’re at in regards to the numbers, how they break up between the two time slots that we have. But if we were to exceed that, then we would just need to extend our camp into more fields on campus.”
Former Noblesville High School coach Lance Scheib is the Director of Operations at the camps, and said he has been working with Grand Park, saying that he was “blown away” by their professionalism and dedication to keeping every athlete safe.
“That has been something that I’ve been very impressed with,” said Scheib.
SAFETY, REPS AND FUN
The 7-on-7 camp has two times: Grades 3-8 will have their camp from 6 to 7:15 p.m., and high school campers (grades 9-12) participate from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. The lineman camp is also from 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. for grades 7-12.
For the 7-on-7 camp, The two different age groups (grades 3-8 and high school) will have slightly different formats. The grades 3-8 campers, Scheib said, will play “both sides of the ball” and get “rep after rep after rep” – that’s his mantra for the camp.
“The biggest key for this, we’re following all the guidelines in front of us so we keep the kids safe, first,” said Scheib. “Secondly, they get a lot of reps and thirdly, they have a lot of fun. If those three things happen, then I feel like we’ve had a successful camp for them.”
As for the high school campers, they will be playing true 7-on-7, either offense or defense. But the goals is the same as it is for the younger campers, said Scheib: To “keep them safe and to have fun and get tons of reps.” It will also help those older players to get back on the field and begin acclimating themselves to football-type situations, as high school practices are not too far away.
“There is a component of coaching,” said Scheib. “We are going to coach on the fly, we are going to make our corrections as a staff on the fly. It’s never going to disrupt the flow of the 7-on-7. The parents and kids are incredibly surprised on how many quality reps they’re going to get.”
The lineman camp will operate among the same lines. This camp will be led by Mathis, the former Colts defensive end who holds the record for most strip-sacks with 47, and has 123 career sacks. Also attending are Nick Hardwick, a Pro Bowl center and former player with the San Diego Chargers, and Daniel Muir, a former defensive tackle.
Scheib said the lineman camp is about technique, in addition to having fun and getting “lots of reps.”
“If you’re looking to get back to hone your skills to be an offensive and defensive lineman, then you want to attend,” said Scheib.
Two baseball tournaments on deck for this week
Activity is continuing to ramp back up at Grand Park, as the campus will host two baseball tournaments this week.
The Midwest Prospect League will play from Tuesday through Saturday. Teams in five divisions, ranging from 13u to 17u, will be competing. The event will be in a round-robin format and is designed for players to “showcase their talents in front of colleges,” according to information on the Bullpen Tournaments website.
On Thursday, the Youth Amateur Baseball Championships begin. This tournament runs through Sunday and will feature teams from across the Midwest. Divisions range from 8u to 12u, with teams playing four pool games before proceeding to bracket play. A total of 80 to 90 teams are expected to participate.
Information on upcoming events is available at the Grand Park website, www.grandpark.org.
Grand Park’s fields F6, F7 and F8 will be the site of two football camps beginning on Monday. The Grand Park 7-on-7 Football Camp is for grades 3-12, with the focus on giving players many reps and fun. Also, the Grand Park Lineman Camp, for grades 7-12, will see former Indianapolis Colts player Robert Mathis and other NFL stars help young linemen develop their technique and hone their skills. (Richie Hall)