Young football hopefuls were put through their paces at the sixth annual Kelly Bates football camp last weekend. The camp took place at the fields behind Humboldt Collegiate Institute on April 29 and 30.
Hosted by Humboldt native Kelly Bates, a veteran CFL offensive lineman and now an assistant coach with the B.C. Lions, the camp was open to kids in Grades 9, 10 and 11.
"We capped this camp at 100 kids, although I'm sure we could get well over that," Bates told the Humboldt Journal. "But in order to have the type of camp we wanted to have, and to give the kids some good one-on-one instruction, we decided to keep it at 100."
In addition to Bates' expertise, the players received instruction from the likes of Calgary Stampeders offensive coordinator Dave Dickenson, Saskatchewan Roughriders special teams coach Craig Dickenson, Roughriders receiver Jason Clermont and fullback Neal Hughes, Edmonton Eskimos defensive lineman Marcus "Chunky" Adams and receiver Elliott Richardson, and University of Saskatchewan Huskies alumni Trevor Bates and Shaun Gardiner.
"The football community is pretty small," Bates noted. "It's a tight-knit family, and I've been very fortunate to have played with some great players at all levels. I think that is evidenced here with this coaching staff.
"I've got guys here I played high school, junior, university and in the pros with, and they're all great coaches, and all love the game of football. Each one brings something special to this camp, and that's why they're here."
Bates' camp is one of a handful that has been tagged as an identification camp for Football Saskatchewan. So in addition to putting the players through skills drills and scrimmages, they were tested in a host of performance areas, from bench pressing, pushups, vertical jump, broad jump and running the 40-yard dash.
Coaches then sat down to discuss which names to pass on for selection to the Roughrider Bowl. The Roughrider Bowl takes place in Regina in June.
Bates said every year he's held his camp, he continues to be impressed by the level of ability the young players show. He agreed that the young players of today are far better than those of a generation ago.
"I think there are two reasons they're getting better," he said. "One is kids are bigger and stronger, and they're better athletes than they ever were. And that's evidenced from the generation gap even from myself to 22-year-olds. You combine that with the fact that these camps are popping up more and more all over the place, and there's so much more opportunity for them to receive proper instruction.
"People should have the mentality that the more camps there are, the more camps you can send your kids to, the better they're going to get. That in itself has helped the kids. I'm very proud of these kids for taking advantage of this opportunity and running with it."
Former CFL quarterback and current Calgary Stampeders offensive coordinator Dave Dickenson made his second trip to Humboldt to participate in the camp this spring. Dickenson was a teammate of Bates with the B.C. Lions from 2003 to 2007.
"I still stay in touch with Kelly," Dickenson said. "And I really like what Kelly does with the camp. My brother (Craig) also joined me this year, which was good for me, because that made it a little easier to sell it to the wife that I was going to be leaving for the weekend."
Also working in Dickenson's favour was the fact his wife Tammy has family in Humboldt. Olga Rabinovitch is Tammy's aunt, and Vern and Diane Rabinovitch are her cousins.
"It was nice having an opportunity to visit with them," Dickenson noted.
In connection with Bates' football camp, Conexus hosted a Comedy Night at the Bella Vista Inn. A silent auction featured jerseys autographed by Jason Clermont, Marcus Adams and Dave Dickenson. Proceeds went to the camp and to Humboldt Collegiate Institute, for an athletics scholarship fund for students wishing to attend other developmental camps in all collegiate sports.
