One hundred high school football players from throughout rural Saskatchewan participated in the annual Kelly Bates Football Camp held in Muenster over the weekend. The kids braved the cold and battled against the snow, perfecting their play."It's never been this bad," Kelly Bates, head coach and camp coordinator, said of the inclement weather. "We've dealt with a blizzard that clears up by 10 a.m., but this in itself is an anomaly. We even had to have the field cleared last week." Despite the frigid temperatures and snow squalls, the boys hit the field for professional development in key areas of the game. Players were mentored on and off the field in a series of skills and hours of instruction over the two-day period. "It's very compact. It's very intense," said Bates. "It is a lot to shove into two days, but it's the attitude of the kids that makes it work." Grade 9, 10 and 11 students participated in a variety of activities including bench, pro agility, human performance, classroom instruction, scrimmage and practice. New to this year's camp was video skills testing for Grade 11 students. The videos will be posted to the Kelly Bates Football Camp and will be made available to all SGFL and CIS coaches in Canada, acting as a recruitment tool. Also new this year was the introduction of the BHP Billiton Resourcing the Future Football Program which sees returned funds to those communities whose football players register for programs. "When we were growing up we certainly didn't have this kind of opportunity," said Bates, who played high school football in Humboldt and went on to play in the CFL for 10 years. "That's what brought about this idea for a football camp for rural kids."I was looking to provide an opportunity to the kids that I never had. After seeing football at the highest level in Canada, and knowing that they're kids out here that have that talent, I thought let's bring in the coaching and opportunity to learn and grow the sport of football."And so, eight years later, the Kelly Bates Football Camp remains one of the most prestigious camps in Saskatchewan. Kids attend from throughout the province and coaches from the Edmonton Eskimos, U of S Huskies, Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Football Association, Team Sask U18, the HCI Mohawks and more participate year after year.This year's camp featured two coaches per position for a total of 14 coaches, representing football leagues from the high school level through to the CFL. "The coaches that we bring out know how to coach and that's why they're here," said Bates. Bates said the sponsorship of BHP Billiton helps make the camp possible by bringing top quality coaches to the camp and lowering the cost of players' participation.Humboldt's own HCI Mohawks head coach Shaun Gardiner plays a pivotal role in the organization of the Kelly Bates camp, acting as a coach and camp coordinator each year.He said the camp is a valuable learning tool to the players, and especially beneficial to the Humboldt players who don't have to travel far to receive high caliber coaching. "The biggest thing for my kids," Gardiner said of the HCI players, "is that I can say something a hundred times to them and they won't listen but somebody else will say the exact same thing but on a different day, in a different situation and that might be the one time they catch on."You can never do enough football fundamentals," he continued. "We could do a camp like this every weekend and it still wouldn't be enough because the growth curve is that high. Most kids start behind in football - unlike hockey where they're playing right from a young age. Football players don't start until they're 14 or 15 so we have to speed their development up in a short time." "Some kids start this camp in Grade 9 and graduate in Grade 11 and the growth we see each year is tremendous," said Bates, now a running backs coach and Canadian Draft Coordinator for the B.C. Lions. "We have a number of kids who have gone on to post-secondary (football) and we've even had one kid start in this camp and he's now playing with the Calgary Stampeders."Bates admits he didn't have the long-term vision to see what the camp could possibly grow into, but said the proof is in the overwhelming response received each year. "It has grown, it has changed," he said from St. Peter's College on Saturday morning. "The first year we had 68 kids and thought we had a pretty successful camp but every year now we have to cap it at 100 kids to ensure that the product we put on the field is still superior."
