Friday, Jun. 13, 2008

Tri-City coaches' summer vision comes together

By Rene Ferran, Herald staff writer

Six months ago, Craig Beverlin and Rob Oram began discussing plans for a summer high school football camp in the Tri-Cities.

On Monday, those plans become reality as the inaugural Tri-City Team Football Camp kicks off a week of activity culminating with the camp championships Friday at Lampson Stadium.

Fourteen teams have signed up for the camp, including Columbia Basin Big Nine members Hanford, Kamiakin, Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, Sunnyside and Walla Walla.

"I'm looking at my white board at the teams that are coming, and that's better competition than we're going to see at any camp we'd go to," said Oram, Hanford's head coach.

"Plus there's the additional benefit that it allows for greater flexibility for the three-sport athlete. Our quarterback (Travis Chalk), for example, will play in Legion games (for the Hanford Flames) before coming to camp. He'll be able to honor his Senior Legion commitment and his football commitment."

Teams will hold morning practices at their school facilities, then come together at night at Hanford High for 7-on-7 passing drills and scrimmages.

Walla Walla will play host to a few schools on Tuesday and Thursday night to alleviate some of the travel costs for the Blue Devils.

On Friday, each team will play two opponents in a jamboree-style event at Lampson. Freshmen teams kick off the event at 6 p.m., with the varsity squads playing from 8-10 p.m.

Admission is $2 for the Friday scrimmages. All other events are free of charge to attend.

"My kids enjoyed going to camp," said Beverlin, the longtime Kamiakin coach. "We'd see different teams there and develop team chemistry. They were disappointed not to be going to Boise. But once I described what was going on here, I don't hear that now."

The primary reason for the creation of the Tri-City camp was money.

Beverlin said that between the entry fee and travel costs, a Kamiakin player spent $375 to attend the Boise State camp last year. Oram estimated attending Whitworth camp cost $250 per Falcon.

"It had just gotten so expensive," Beverlin said. "And the college camps are so big, we were not getting that much individual attention. So we got together and said we can do this right here at home."

For the Tri-City camp, a student-athlete will pay on average $150 to attend, although Beverlin said each school will set its own entry fee.

Beverlin estimated about $10,000 in expenses to run the camp. If organizers turn a profit, all proceeds will be returned to the attending schools based upon the number of participants each had.

Another factor was the fallout from a hazing incident two years ago involving Southridge players at Eastern Washington University's camp.

"All of us could have had a Southridge incident, so I don't want to place it all on them," Beverlin said. "But because of it, it created so much paperwork for us coaches, it got to the point where we said, 'It's not much fun.' We can't be on top of everything as much as we wanted or needed to be."

The initial discussions to create the camp included Prosser coach Tom Moore and Pasco's Steve Graff. Moore eventually dropped out and will take the Mustangs to EWU.

In December, many of the logistics were worked out. Hanford was chosen as the site because it had the room to put in up to eight football fields on land alongside the school.

Besides the seven CBBN schools, the camp will have Pendleton, Hermiston, Kiona-Benton, Grandview, River View, Stanfield and Waitsburg-Prescott.