A prestigious football academy from California has recently announced that they’ll be putting on a three day football camp in Yorkton after members of Yorkton Minor Football (YMF) approached them to see if they’d be interested in holding a camp north of the border.
The Bankhead Sports Academy based in Wildomar, California, will be in Yorkton from April 30 – May 1 to help local and non-local football players improve their skills and get to the next level. “What we’re doing is, we’re bringing in elite football coaches from the state of California to help our local football players improve their skills before the start of the 2016 season,” said Jason Boyda, a YMF Gridder and YRHS Raider coach who has been one of the driving forces in getting the Bankhead Sports Academy to come north of the border and to Yorkton. “We have coach John Bankhead, coach Phillip Napoleon and some other California-based coaches coming up to Yorkton to put on a coaching clinic for not just Yorkton kids, but for anyone from within the province who wants to get some highly elite, professional coaching to make them a better football player.”
The main coach and founder of the Bankhead Sports Academy - John Bankhead – will be the coach in charge of the clinic.
Bankhead, the California-based coach, spent parts of several seasons in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Raiders and San Diego Chargers and will bring a plethora of knowledge and experience with him to the clinic. “I’ve been doing this for 10 years, and I’ve been in all 50 states coaching as a national quarterback and receiver coach so I know what I’m doing,” said Bankhead, continuing, “I’ve been blessed to work with quarterbacks and be around quarterbacks such as Drew Brees, Carson Palmer, Tim Tebow, Mark Sanchez and great receivers such as Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens and the list goes on to current receivers like the Brandon Cooks with the New Orleans Saints, so that’s what I get to bring to these athletes; all of the knowledge from all of those pros and all of those college athletes that I get to be around, I take that knowledge and I bring it to the athletes.
“I know that I can help these young men and women, I know that I have the formula for the success because at the end of the day I’ve walked in every one of those dad’s shoes and I’ve walked in every one of those young man’s shoes so I know how to help them.”
The clinic will consist of six practices over three days – one on Friday, three on Saturday and two on Sunday – as well as multiple in-class and film sessions designed to help athletes see where they need to improve and just how to approach doing so.
Boyda says that the football camp is open to any athlete – male or female – between the ages of 12 and 18 and that right now there are 70 kids registered. “Right now we have 70 kids signed up and our goal is to get 100 in total,” offered Boyda. “We’ve got two months to go so I think we’ll definitely reach that 100 mark.”
To register for the camp or to inquire about it, please contact Jason Boyda at 306-620-9453 or Heidi Watrych at 306-621-9760.
