Kellen Moore Passing Academy a hit with local players

Cody Bruns and Gino Simone put their differences aside this weekend to help out at the second annual Kellen Moore Passing Academy at Richland High School.

The former University of Washington and Washington State wide receivers ran their charges through drills for two days and loved every minute of it.

“This was a great experience,” said Bruns, who now works for PNNL. “For Kellen to bring something like this to the area is great. He pulled together coaches and players from all over to share their wealth of knowledge with the players. I think the kids benefited from it.”

The camp, for quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers and tight ends in grades 7-12, brought together kids from Tri-City schools, Kiona-Benton, Prosser, Yakima and others. The players got a few life lessons about how important school is, along with football instruction.

“This was a great bunch of kids,” Bruns said. “We had over 100 kids, but from a numbers standpoint, there was max teaching for each kid at every station. This is great program. Hopefully 20 years down the road, it’s still going.”

Bruns, who played at Prosser High School with Moore, and Simone, who played at Skyline High School in Sammamish, played against each other in college and have worked other camps together over the years.

Though they kept it civil for the kids, Simone had a few parting words for Bruns: “2012 Apple Cup.”

Moore, a backup quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, appreciated the help from his former teammate and others to make sure the camp ran smoothly.

“The people who came here to help took time out of their day and jobs,” said Moore, who played college ball at Boise State. “I felt like we had a great group of coaches. Richland (High School) was awesome setting this up at their facility. We had plenty of room for the kids to spread out and run their drills. It went well and was a lot of fun. The second year always runs smoother.”

Moore signed autographs and took pictures with the players before packing up and heading home to Utah.

“I think it’s good for them to see local kids like myself and others go on to a higher level of football,” said Moore, who reports to training camp July 28.

This story was originally published June 25, 2016 at 9:04 PM with the headline "Kellen Moore Passing Academy a hit with local players."