LA GRANDE, Ore. – The Eastern Oregon University football program had their 11-man Team Camp end recently. It was another successful camp led by the Mountaineers.
“The camp is a success because of all the hard work by the coaches and players,” EOU football head coach Tim Camp said. “To max out a camp at the small college level is unbelievable. We started this camp with nine teams and this year we had 14.”
It was the largest turnout in the camp’s history with nearly 500 kids ranging from incoming high school freshmen to seniors. High school teams from Oregon, Nevada, Idaho and Washington all came to the Grande Ronde Valley.
The players are staying in the dorms on campus, and Camp added that every bed was taken and the
dining hall was filled each night. The camp consisted of three practices a day, with EOU coaches holding individual and team drills throughout each day. In the evening, quarterbacks met and went through particular drills to improve their skill set. The final day consisted of a round-robin team tournament.
“This is a great camp,” Hudson Bay High School (Vancouver, Wash.) head coach Will Ephraim said. “It really brings out mental toughness in the kids the way the schedule is set up. This camp is up there on the list of camps run by small colleges; it’s got to be near the top.”
The team camp was the third and final summer clinic run by the Mountaineers. A big-man camp and 8-man Team Camp have already been completed this summer.
“This camp has been a really good experience for our kids,” Rex Putnam High School (Milwaukee, Ore.) head coach Brian Freitag said. “This was our first time at this camp. I wanted to get some game speed type stuff going before the season and this camp does that. It’s been well-run and the coaches have been great to work with.”
Kickoff to Eastern’s first game is exactly one month away on Aug. 28 in La Grande against Southern Oregon University.