Football players of all ages had a busy week as the UNM football team and former UNM player and current NFL star Brian Urlacher held football camps in Albuquerque.
Some of the more than 600 high school players pitched tents for the Lobo football team’s camp at UNM’s south campus from Friday to Sunday, while 175 children ages 8 to 14 frolicked on the Rio Rancho High School fields beginning Monday with Urlacher, the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year. The Urlacher camp ends today.
The camps catered to different audiences with the same intent in mind: to improve the campers’ football skills.
The UNM football camp taught players fundamentals and techniques in the morning, then players competed in seven-on-seven scrimmages in the afternoons. High school coaches also reaped rewards from the camp by learning different ways of teaching specialized instruction. Players from schools in the Southwest and the Midwest attended the event, with most of the schools bringing groups of players to work and learn together. Some players attended the camp individually and were teamed with similar players for the scrimmages. Many of the teams pitched tents on the south campus practice fields for their stay, which UNM head coach Rocky Long said helped breed team unity.
Long said the main goals of the UNM football camp was to give high school players more exposure to the football program, work on improving the players’ skills, teach them better techniques and letting the players have a good time.
Long said the camp was also a good way of evaluating talent — he said he would probably offer four or five players scholarships after the camp.
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“The whole purpose of a camp in the first place is to give players a good experience about football and to allow us to promote our program,” Long said. “Promoting our program with a good image is one way, promoting our program with developing relationships with high school coaches is another way and developing our program by evaluating high school football players is another way. I think the high school kids have a good experience, but it helps out program, too.”
Meanwhile, Urlacher’s camp was aimed at a younger audience, but also focuses on teaching the campers basic skills on offense, defense and special teams.
“Most of our kids are aged 8 to about 13, 14 — not many older ones — they’re going to learn the fundamentals,” said Bryce Carter, a volunteer at the camp. “They do kicking, punting, blocking, pass catching, defensive drills — they experience everything.”
About 20 coaches — including several from Lovington and Artesia high schools who coached or played with Urlacher in the mid-1990s — have volunteered as instructors for Urlacher’s camp. Urlacher even recruited a former UNM teammate — Daniel Reyes — to lend a hand at the event.
Urlacher is very involved in the camp, helping out with drills and competing against some of the players. Urlacher said a couple of NFL players came by earlier in the week.
“It’s just a camp for kids to have a good time, get a chance to meet some NFL players,” Urlacher said. “How many times will they get to do that in their lifetimes? They get to watch on TV, now they get a chance to come meet them.”
While the players were enthusiastic about the drills, they came to see one person — Urlacher.
“He’s pretty cool; he’s real nice,” said Vince Garcia, a freshman at Rio Rancho High School.
Many of the campers peppered Urlacher with questions about what teams he followed as a child, if he ever faced the Dallas Cowboys or its star running back Emmitt Smith and what quarterbacks he wants to sack the most. Mostly, though, Urlacher said the kids treat him like a normal person.
“I don’t feel any different,” he said. “They pick on me, they jack around on me. We have a good time, so I don’t really feel any different than any of them. Maybe that’ll make them more comfortable around me in the future.”
Marcus Dunning, 8, asked Urlacher two questions.
“I asked him, ‘How did it feel to hit (quarterback) Charlie Batch in Detroit?’ and ‘What quarterback you want to hit the most?’” Dunning said.
“He said, ‘It felt gooood to hit Charlie Batch,’ and he said, ‘I want to hit every quarterback in the NFL.’”
