Over 100 attend annual Highland High School youth football camp
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POCATELLO — Every July, kids from throughout eastern Idaho are invited to an instructional camp hosted by the Highland High School football team.
According to Highland head football coach Nick Sorrell, this year’s Highland High School Youth Instructional Football Camp was attended by more than 100 kids between fifth and eighth grade, and another 60 or so kids during the kindergarten-to-fourth grade session.
Sorrell could not say precisely how long the camp has been running, but he does remember attending as a child.
During recent years, registration numbers did dwindle, with the discovery of CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and its ties to football. But those numbers, Sorrell said, have surged of late.
“That’s a good thing, for all of the sport,” Sorrell told EastIdahoNews.com. “I love to see kids being active and wanting to participate in this great sport.”
With the 100-plus kids who attend the camp, the Highland coaching staff is obviously shorthanded. But that issue is remedied in the most inspiring way possible. As Sorrell explained, around 40 of the student-athletes who represent the Rams in the fall and winter volunteer to be player-coaches for the camp.
The coach said it is “cool” to see so many of his players sacrifice their summer time to help the program and local youths.
“A lot of our players went to this same camp, so this is their way to give back,” Sorrell said.
With many of the current Rams having attended the camp, that begs the question: How much of the camp is about recruiting the stars of tomorrow?
Sorrell laughed before explaining that teaching kids the program and system Highland runs can be beneficial to that program. But, he added, that is not the goal of the camp at all.
“I don’t what school they go to, I just want east Idaho to be dominant in football,” Sorrell said. “It’s about growing the game.”
It doesn’t matter if kids attend the camp from kindergarten to eighth grade, growing their skill all the while — something Sorrell said he has seen and holds as one of the camp’s main rewards — before going to rival Pocatello. Some of the kids, Sorrell added, come from as far away as Preston to take part of the camp.
No matter where they play their high school ball, this camp is Highland’s way of advancing the game across the region.
The camp takes place every summer, in July. Signups usually begin in May, when the Highland coaching staff sends out flyers to local schools.
