Football Camp stories- lets hear em!!

[Bucs2016]

I know several here played in college and many more in high school. Im sad to hear 2 a days are now banned. Football camp was such a gut check character builder. Anyway....lets hear em. Camp stories. Worst moments. Most satisfying. Etc etc. A few of mine:

Worst: Freshman year CSU. 2 a days w a 3rd special teams "walk through" in between. I got severe shin splints in both legs and a fracture in wrist. It was an infamous "clean house" year so it was a time where you'd better perform or you're headed home next semester. Combined w Charleston heat and a staff looking to weed out the weak...i literally stared at ceiling of my dorm and contemplated quitting every night.

Best: EVERY Oklahoma drill. God **** those were fun and intense.

Odd: Gatorade for lunch. We had about an hour and a half between morning practice and lunch. Immediately followed by meetings for film then special teams etc etc. Many days it was skip lunch and lay in the dorm drinking Gatorade for lunch bc you were too tired to eat, too hot to leave the AC. Those hour naps between practices were pure gold! And one year I had this weird obsession in camp with YooHoo and Sunkist canned drinks. I downed a dozen a day then never wanted them again after camp!

In high school....we camped by sleeping in the cafeteria for 2 weeks of 2 a days. The glory days haha! The final night the coaches took us all to the Fish Camp. For you yankees a Fish Camp is any mom and pop seafood place down here where everything is fried, everyone knows each other and the plates/utensils are prison quality. But its the best seafood you'll ever eat! That night w all my old HS teammates and the pure excitement of the new season...life long memory.


So many more to add. What are some of yalls?

[ASU33]

Worst: Freshman year at ASU all-conference and future NFL player Chad Lucas took me to school during 7-on-7. I swear he caught like 6 passes for like 80+ yards and killed all the confidence that I had. Coach Peirce, my DC came to me after the drill and said "Hell son I was thinking you were too good to redshirt, now I have my questions". Worst first day EVER!

2nd Worst: Being called in the office and being told that I was moving from corner to safety. I cried that whole night.

Best: 1st scrimmage and had 2 "whoo licks" and made several plays and our head coach pull me to the side and told me that this was EXACTLY why he recruited me.

2nd: Best seeing my name listed at the top of the depth chart at strong safety as a true freshman right as camp ended.

[Bucs2016]

Worst: Freshman year at ASU all-conference and future NFL player Chad Lucas took me to school during 7-on-7. I swear he caught like 6 passes for like 80+ yards and killed all the confidence that I had. Coach Peirce, my DC came to me after the drill and said "Hell son I was thinking you were too good to redshirt, now I have my questions". Worst first day EVER!

2nd Worst: Being called in the office and being told that I was moving from corner to safety. I cried that whole night.

Best: 1st scrimmage and had 2 "whoo licks" and made several plays and our head coach pull me to the side and told me that this was EXACTLY why he recruited me.

2nd: Best seeing my name listed at the top of the depth chart at strong safety as a true freshman right as camp ended.

Oh yeah those are good ones. When I arrived everyone said a freshmans goal should be making the travel team. It meant obviously you got to dress for all games as a freshman. I was initially a walk on (ended up a starter) so that first year I just wanted to survive camp! Lo and behold after pouring my soul into it that first few weeks...when they had the firsr special teams practice they called out my name to midfield for kickoff return team as a "wall" guy. I was in disbelief and realized id be actually playing as a freshman! I swear it was like winning the Heisman to me haha!!! First game we took the ball so I was on the field for play 1 game 1 of my freshman year. For me that was a huge accomplishment. Got the holy hell knocked out of me on that 1st play but dammit I was on the field!

Lowlight.....Jr year I beat out everyone for starting spot at DE. Outplayed em. They brought in 2 far higher profile JUCO guys (after all I showed up as a walk on). I out played em and was 1st team all camp. Game week arrived. I was given a gold practice jersey in my locker, which is the SCOUT TEAM. With no explanation at all within 24 hours went from 1st team to scout team. Had good grades. Never disciplined off field. Coach wouldnt even speak to me about it. By mid year I was back in the 2 deep and started the final few games and all of my Sr year. Assistant coach left program after that year and never found out what happened. Bothers me to this day But its a life lesson that has served me well. Sometimes you just get screwed and you have no choice but to fight your way back or quit.

[Panther88]

Oh yeah those are good ones. When I arrived everyone said a freshmans goal should be making the travel team. It meant obviously you got to dress for all games as a freshman. I was initially a walk on (ended up a starter) so that first year I just wanted to survive camp! Lo and behold after pouring my soul into it that first few weeks...when they had the firsr special teams practice they called out my name to midfield for kickoff return team as a "wall" guy. I was in disbelief and realized id be actually playing as a freshman! I swear it was like winning the Heisman to me haha!!! First game we took the ball so I was on the field for play 1 game 1 of my freshman year. For me that was a huge accomplishment. Got the holy hell knocked out of me on that 1st play but dammit I was on the field!

Lowlight.....Jr year I beat out everyone for starting spot at DE. Outplayed em. They brought in 2 far higher profile JUCO guys (after all I showed up as a walk on). I out played em and was 1st team all camp. Game week arrived. I was given a gold practice jersey in my locker, which is the SCOUT TEAM. With no explanation at all within 24 hours went from 1st team to scout team. Had good grades. Never disciplined off field. Coach wouldnt even speak to me about it. By mid year I was back in the 2 deep and started the final few games and all of my Sr year. Assistant coach left program after that year and never found out what happened. Bothers me to this day But its a life lesson that has served me well. Sometimes you just get screwed and you have no choice but to fight your way back or quit.

Sorry for that. Brings back slightly bad memories for me. It's amazing how a coaching obstacle can literally throw a fork in personal direction as we matriculate in our lives.

Best (decently) was HS: Grades 9-12, rode a bicycle exactly 5.2 miles from home to HS for early 8am on the field practice until 11am+/noonish where we went LIVE hitting all the time[3 week camp: 1 week shorts/tee/helmet-learning; 2 weeks hitting].
Left morning practice and rode bike back home to rest/watch tv for ~2-3 hrs. Rode bicycle BACK to hs for evening practice that started on the field promptly @ 4pm until 7...8... and few 9pms . Rode bicycle back home immediately after evening practice. It was a "gang" of us (cousins, friends) who rode to/fro together. None of us ever got hurt in practice while hitting, remarkably. I purchased my '68 dodge @ 15 and although I had a car, I still chose to ride the Schwinn everywhere instead of driving. Certainly helped out because I never came off the field during games lol [2-way starter].

Worst but best AND is considered my lowest time, college: I was a hs blue-chipper starting my jr yr after leading my team to the quarterfinals of the tx big-class championship while @ qb. I received numerous offers to play @ then D-IA, D-IAA, and D-II schools as a WR, SS, & FS but not as a qb (was told that I was too short @ 6'0"). My most coveted D-IA offer was from UCLA (maternal uncle was a coach there and pulled that string).
I shunned all football schol offers my sr yr hs and opted to be a normal student, for once, w/ an academic schol. I was semi-depressed as I adjusted to go from hon mention all-state/2x all-region/2x all distr/2x all-county qb to seemingly nothing because Barry Switzer or his staff didn't come save me. I wanted to be the next JC Watts or Jamele Holieway . I didn't play ball for 3 yrs post HS and simply chose to lift weights, get bigger and stronger, and leave football to itself [went from 175lbs to 225lbs]. Start of my sr yr, a PV coach asked me to walk on when he saw me effortlessly lifting 3-plates each side and I practiced for 2 days @ SS until the DB coach said this: "You packed on a lot of weight since April and seems like you're committed to getting stronger... you juicing?" I couldn't lie. 3 months prior while interning in the CMH, I hooked up w/ a ****** who gave me some stuff to help get me over a hump I was in and he even sent some "stuff" to my dorm room in tx. We were dedicated lifting partners @ the local Scandinanvian gym 3-4X weekly while I was there and hung out @ certain bars on High St arbitrarily. I was kicked off the team and I stopped taking that stuff too. [roid rage is real ]

[Bucs2016]

ASU33 thats impressive starting as a true freshman. Div 1 football is no joke and no matter how great a HS player is thats a huge jump. Well done!

[ASU33]

ASU33 thats impressive starting as a true freshman. Div 1 football is no joke and no matter how great a HS player is thats a huge jump. Well done!

Believe it or not I told myself that was done with football after high school and my goal was to play basketball in college. I came out of college at 6'3 190 pounds and played corner, receiver, and quarterback in high school. In high school I was all-state in both basketball and football but I noticed that by my junior year that my basketball offers came in a lot slower than my football offers. During my sophomore year I turn down quite a few football camps during the summer to play AAU basketball and to go to basketball camps. The problem in basketball was that I was a 6'3 guard/forward so no real big time schools offered me despite me being a 3 year starter on the varsity basketball team. I was actually considering walking-on to the basketball team at LSU instead of playing football. Most of the FBS offers that I got were from schools far away like Tulsa, Marshall, Fresno State and ect. and I didn't want to go play so far away that my parents couldn't see me play on a regular basis. I was about to sign with Tulane but I wanted to get away from home, plus both of my parents were professors there so that was a no. Alabama State came with not only a scholarship but Coach Spivery offered me a walk-on spot with the basketball team. So I actually played on the basketball team during the 2003-04 and 2004-2005 seasons. I guess football worked out best because I was a 1st team All-Conference guy three years at ASU and basketball wise I only played maybe 5-6 minutes per game.

[Bisonoline]

My sophomore year at Iowa. Two a days under out new head coach was brutal. No regular water breaks. Everything was full contact all the time and that extended though to the regular season.

About 7 days in to the 10-14 days of two a days the senior center that Iam battling for the starting spot goes down with a lower back injury.
SOooooo now there is jut me and a 3rd teamer who was really a guard are the only centers. As we get done with cal and break down in to position drills I am informed that I will be the center for the 1s and 2s for all the drills. So after one drill I have to run back and be the center for the 2s while everyone gets a break. This went on all practice including scrimmage. Longest practice of my life.

Did I mention that when I showed up for camp I was 220. Our new head coach thought I was too heavy and put me on the fatmans table. When we went to Ohio State for out first game of the year he had me down to 199.

Speaking of the fatmans table we had a guy Named Wendell Bell from LA. He was 3 bills easy. So they had Wendell on the fatmans table but he wasnt losing any weight. After about 7 days they were wondering WTF so they had a coach watch him. After dinner we usually had some free time after training room treatments. After treatments Wendell would use the Pay Phone and call the local Pizza joint and have them deliver it 4 blocks away at a park down by the river. The coaches finally figure it out and have a coach hiding in the tall bushes. Just like clock work Wendell shows up and 5 minutes later here comes the pizza guy. So Wendell is eating his pizza and the coach steps out of the bushes and says--damn Wendell that looks pretty good. Wendell with out missing a beats says---you want some. Coach says yeah. As the coach eats a piece of Wendells pizza--- Wendell says---pretty good huh. Coach says Yep. Wendell then says--- Im in big trouble aint I? the coach says Yep as hes eating Wendells pizza. The coach gets up to leave and Wendell asks--you want some more pizza? Coach goes no thanks Im trying to lose some weight and keeps walking.
Of course Wendell gets no sleep that night.
Next day we all get up and go to breakfast. As the wait staff brings everyone their breakfast except for Wendell.
Wendell is sitting there not saying anything----when all of a sudden the doors open and it the pizza delivery guy with a pizza. All of the coaches are sitting there with a big smile on there face. They all get up and surround Wendell and make him eat this ginormous pizza all the while they are yelling at him. After he eats it the coaches then explain to all of us what has happened and that Wendell is going to have a very rough day. I think Wendell made it through 30 minutes of practice before he blew chow with the coaches yelling at him and asking how that pizza tasted the second time around.

[TheKingpin28]

My sophomore year at Iowa. Two a days under out new head coach was brutal. No regular water breaks. Everything was full contact all the time and that extended though to the regular season.

About 7 days in to the 10-14 days of two a days the senior center that Iam battling for the starting spot goes down with a lower back injury.
SOooooo now there is jut me and a 3rd teamer who was really a guard are the only centers. As we get done with cal and break down in to position drills I am informed that I will be the center for the 1s and 2s for all the drills. So after one drill I have to run back and be the center for the 2s while everyone gets a break. This went on all practice including scrimmage. Longest practice of my life.

Did I mention that when I showed up for camp I was 220. Our new head coach thought I was too heavy and put me on the fatmans table. When we went to Ohio State for out first game of the year he had me down to 199.

Speaking of the fatmans table we had a guy Named Wendell Bell from LA. He was 3 bills easy. So they had Wendell on the fatmans table but he wasnt losing any weight. After about 7 days they were wondering WTF so they had a coach watch him. After dinner we usually had some free time after training room treatments. After treatments Wendell would use the Pay Phone and call the local Pizza joint and have them deliver it 4 blocks away at a park down by the river. The coaches finally figure it out and have a coach hiding in the tall bushes. Just like clock work Wendell shows up and 5 minutes later here comes the pizza guy. So Wendell is eating his pizza and the coach steps out of the bushes and says--damn Wendell that looks pretty good. Wendell with out missing a beats says---you want some. Coach says yeah. As the coach eats a piece of Wendells pizza--- Wendell says---pretty good huh. Coach says Yep. Wendell then says--- Im in big trouble aint I? the coach says Yep as hes eating Wendells pizza. The coach gets up to leave and Wendell asks--you want some more pizza? Coach goes no thanks Im trying to lose some weight and keeps walking.
Of course Wendell gets no sleep that night.
Next day we all get up and go to breakfast. As the wait staff brings everyone their breakfast except for Wendell.
Wendell is sitting there not saying anything----when all of a sudden the doors open and it the pizza delivery guy with a pizza. All of the coaches are sitting there with a big smile on there face. They all get up and surround Wendell and make him eat this ginormous pizza all the while they are yelling at him. After he eats it the coaches then explain to all of us what has happened and that Wendell is going to have a very rough day. I think Wendell made it through 30 minutes of practice before he blew chow with the coaches yelling at him and asking how that pizza tasted the second time around.

I was cracking up right where the bolded part is, and I could not control it by the underlined part.

[cx500d]

My sophomore year at Iowa. Two a days under out new head coach was brutal. No regular water breaks. Everything was full contact all the time and that extended though to the regular season.

About 7 days in to the 10-14 days of two a days the senior center that Iam battling for the starting spot goes down with a lower back injury.
SOooooo now there is jut me and a 3rd teamer who was really a guard are the only centers. As we get done with cal and break down in to position drills I am informed that I will be the center for the 1s and 2s for all the drills. So after one drill I have to run back and be the center for the 2s while everyone gets a break. This went on all practice including scrimmage. Longest practice of my life.

Did I mention that when I showed up for camp I was 220. Our new head coach thought I was too heavy and put me on the fatmans table. When we went to Ohio State for out first game of the year he had me down to 199.

Speaking of the fatmans table we had a guy Named Wendell Bell from LA. He was 3 bills easy. So they had Wendell on the fatmans table but he wasnt losing any weight. After about 7 days they were wondering WTF so they had a coach watch him. After dinner we usually had some free time after training room treatments. After treatments Wendell would use the Pay Phone and call the local Pizza joint and have them deliver it 4 blocks away at a park down by the river. The coaches finally figure it out and have a coach hiding in the tall bushes. Just like clock work Wendell shows up and 5 minutes later here comes the pizza guy. So Wendell is eating his pizza and the coach steps out of the bushes and says--damn Wendell that looks pretty good. Wendell with out missing a beats says---you want some. Coach says yeah. As the coach eats a piece of Wendells pizza--- Wendell says---pretty good huh. Coach says Yep. Wendell then says--- Im in big trouble aint I? the coach says Yep as hes eating Wendells pizza. The coach gets up to leave and Wendell asks--you want some more pizza? Coach goes no thanks Im trying to lose some weight and keeps walking.
Of course Wendell gets no sleep that night.
Next day we all get up and go to breakfast. As the wait staff brings everyone their breakfast except for Wendell.
Wendell is sitting there not saying anything----when all of a sudden the doors open and it the pizza delivery guy with a pizza. All of the coaches are sitting there with a big smile on there face. They all get up and surround Wendell and make him eat this ginormous pizza all the while they are yelling at him. After he eats it the coaches then explain to all of us what has happened and that Wendell is going to have a very rough day. I think Wendell made it through 30 minutes of practice before he blew chow with the coaches yelling at him and asking how that pizza tasted the second time around.

I have a similar story, but it wasn't football, it involved a marine drill instructor, about 1 cubic feet of red gummi worms, and an ambulance ride to the hospital after an unaware person saw the person that was force fed the gummy worms puking them up, saw the puke was deep red and thought the guy was puking blood and called for an ambulance.

Back to your story though, I thought you were going to say the coaches name was Mr. Hand.
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[Bisonoline]

I have a similar story, but it wasn't football, it involved a marine drill instructor, about 1 cubic feet of red gummi worms, and an ambulance ride to the hospital after an unaware person saw the person that was force fed the gummy worms puking them up, saw the puke was deep red and thought the guy was puking blood and called for an ambulance.

Back to your story though, I thought you were going to say the coaches name was Mr. Hand.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk