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Summer camp season is coming to Morgantown.
West Virginia is set to host four one-day elite camps in June and then another at the end of July with a 7-on-7/big man camp, specialist camp and youth camps sandwiched in between. The events are critical for the program as it provides a window for the coaching staff to evaluate prospects in person.
“A lot of guys we’re really excited about we just haven’t had a chance to see them in person because you don’t always get to especially when you’re in this tight of a window taking a job,” said Brian Bennett, director of player personnel.
Camps were a critical part of the model at Neal Brown’s last stop at Troy according to Bennett, who has served in his role at both stops. In fact, Bennett estimates that around 80-percent of the players that the Trojans signed during Brown’s tenure there camped in some capacity with the coaches.
“Even guys that were committed to us came and competed. It was the reason we were a good football team at Troy because guys who were on our team would compete and were willing to work,” he said.
The one-day events make up the bulk of the camp schedule and will be on the 2nd, 7th, 14th and 17th of June with the final event being July 25. These will bring prospects to campus where they will first check-in before moving into some testing and then working in positional groups.
That aspect is important not only for the coaches to work out players in drills specific to their positions to see how they take coaching but for those in attendance to get to know the coaching staff as well.
“They get to work with the coaches and experience it first-hand. For them to know their position coach and understand how he coaches is really important,” Bennett said.
Things conclude with competition drills pitting players up against one another such as in one-on-ones and other things that will challenge those in attendance.
The camps will serve as a database of sorts moving forward as well when it comes to recruiting as coaches will be able to make notes on those prospects in future classes that will be critical once they head back out on the road for the contact period in December and January the following year.
It also can create an idea of which prospects the coaches would like to invite to junior days in the future and other recruiting events based off how they performed in the camp setting.
The events also are a way for Brown himself to be involved in the evaluation process as he is very involved in the camps by walking around and watching players in attendance.
“Those days are hectic for him but he gets to see everybody in camp,” Bennett said.
The 7-on-7 and big man event is set to be held June 21-22 and will welcome a large contingent of area teams and players to compete in the double-elimination tournament. The teams will square off on the various fields at the football facilities until one team is left as the winner.
All the while the big man camp provides an opportunity for those linemen on the teams to workout with coaches and receive instruction while their teammates compete in the 7-on-7.
“It’s going to be an extremely large event,” Bennett said.
Each of those events, as well as the youth camps, are headed by a different member of the staff whose primary focus is organizing and building that separate camp. While each member is involved there are specialties such as Casey Smithson heading up the 7-on-7 tournament, Caleb Carbine is over top of the big man camp, Scott Gasper handles the one-day elite camps and Ryan Nehlen is over top the youth.
“This is a huge tool for us,” Bennett said.
New to this year will be the use of satellite camps, or opportunities off campus that the West Virginia coaches will work that are hosted by other institutions. Bennett expects the Mountaineers to do anywhere between 3-4 of those this summer but is in the process of finalizing that list.
He does expect that the coaches will hit areas such as Florida, New Jersey/Philadelphia and Charlotte in order to reach a population that could have difficulty making it to Morgantown.
“There’s a lot of options to get to different parts of the country that might be harder for them to get to our camps,” Bennett said.
Times vary for each of the events and you can register and obtain more information on each of the West Virginia summer camp offerings by visiting http://wvufootballcamps.com/
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