Lights grid camp focuses on youth

Football camps have turned into a summer tradition as strong as baseball or a trip to Dairy Queen. And this week, the Montana State University-Northern football program got the summer underway with its annual youth football camp.

The camp is put on by the MSU-N coaching staff, which is led by head coach Aaron Christensen and defensive coordinator Jake Eldridge. The camp, which features an array of kids, from grades K-7, started Monday at the Lights practice fields and will conclude today. The camp also goes for two hours a day, starting at 9 a.m., and ending at 11 a.m.

The kids, who are as young as 7 and as old as 12, split up on the field according to age. Each group is coached by a different individual, but for the most part, the drills were the same.

The coaches walked the youth players through basic warm up drills, as well as basic drills that showed them how to run, change direction, catch the football, throw the football and tackle.

"We really focus on the fundamental things," Christensen said. "But, it's good just to get the kids out here playing football and having fun. A lot of the kids, the younger kids, they haven't been exposed to it, so a lot of it for them is just getting out and seeing what football's like."

However, Christensen said, another great part about running camps like this is turning these young football players into fans.

"It's great for the kids," Christensen said. "The kids get to come out and see Northern and start figuring out what Northern football is all about when they are young. We had a few kids in Northern football jerseys yesterday, so that was pretty cool."

One Havre youngster who took part in the action was Aaron Fuzesy, who is 9 years old and will be entering the fourth grade next school year. When asked what his favorite part was about the camp, Fuzesy said, "Playing football against each other."

Fuzesy was referring to the light scrimmaging the kids get to take part in near the end of the practice. There are also some relay races in the middle of the two-hours on the practice field, but in the end, a few, full-blown games of two-hand touch signal the end of the day.

"It's a fundamental-type camp," Christensen said. "It's noncontact. With some of the older kids, we try to get a little more detailed and work on things like handoffs and stuff like that. We even did some T-steps, but with the younger kids, we just work on running through cones and holding the ball. We teach some tackling stuff, like keeping your head, but mostly, we keep it simple and try to keep it fun."

The camp, which started Monday, concluded this morning on the Lights' practice field.