Lights football camp is fundamentally fun

It might be a little hot outside for football, but that hasn't stopped around 100 youngsters from taking over the Montana State University-Northern practice field for Lights football camp this week.

The grades of the kids attending range from kindergarten all the way up to sixth grade. The kids are split into two groups, K-3 and 4-6. There are no pads and no hitting, except for the tackling dummy and basically the camp is a three-day lesson on fundamentals.

It is also the first Lights Youth Camp put on since new head coach Aaron Christenson arrived at Northern.

"With the young guys, we are teaching a lot of the basic fundamentals like how to catch, how to line up in a stance and those kind of things," said Northern defensive coordinator Jake Eldridge, who has been a part of the camp for the past eight years. "Then we are also doing a lot of agility type things with the younger guys. We will do some fun things, too, like agility races and relay races, things like that. We just want to basically get them out here and moving and having fun.

"With the older guys, we still do some of that same stuff," he added. "But we are also getting into the position specific stuff, like not just how to throw but showing them the proper mechanics of shifting weight from the back foot to the front foot. We are working with catching the ball and actually using the diamond and your hands to catch it. We are showing running backs how to carry the ball and then ... actually going through drills where they have to carry the ball and move around with it, too. On defense, we are actually getting into concepts of coverage and things like that. So it's a little more advanced for those guys but it needs to be. They are playing organized football now, so it's something they can really grasp and it can carry over, not just the fundamentals but the actual concepts."

Kip Laneom, 5, was one player in attendance and he was excited about the chance to learn about football from Eldridge and the rest of the Lights' coaching staff, including Christenson, who spent the first part of camp throwing passes.

"I am looking forward to tackling the tackling dummies," Kip said.

While Kip was part of the younger group, Mason Wilting, 9, was working with the older kids and was one of those targeted by Christenson's passes.

"I am most excited about the catching," Wilting said.

Wilting, who said he likes playing linebacker and receiver, also enjoyed catching passes from Lights' coaches. He said he was a fan of the team and that he hoped to play for the Havre Blue Ponies some day.

While the camp is mostly fun and an instructional thing for the kids, Eldridge did talk about the benefits the camp has provided for the Northern football program.

"I think, number one, it's great to get these kids out and active and doing something during the summer," he said. "But it's great to get them up here on campus and get them enthused about the game of football and obviously Northern football and things like that, too. We see a lot of carryover. We let these kids come to our football games (for free) if they wear their camp shirts, so we get great exposure like that."

The camp started Tuesday morning and will run through Thursday.