Football is coming a little bit under attack lately. It’s made out to be something that it’s not. We want to promote the game and teach young kids. It’s one of the best team sports there is. It teaches a lot of good qualities that they can use in life.”

UW Stout Head Football Coach Birmingham

I thought the camp was excellent. We started the camp in order to offer an affordable, local skills camp to athletes.”

Stanley-Boyd Head Football Coach Koenig

Area 6^th to 12^th grade student athletes participated in a two-day camp hosted by UW Stout Football at Stanley-Boyd’s Oriole Park on July 10^th and 11^th where athletes received instruction from UW Stout Head Football Coach Clayt Birmingham and 8 members of his coaching staff on fundamentals and techniques relating to specific positions.  The summer football camp began in 2006 when it was managed by UW Eau Claire but with a change in their coaching staff, the program was in danger of ending.  Stanley-Boyd District Administrator and High School Head Football Coach Jeff Koenig approached the coaching staff at UW-Stout about taking over and Head Football Coach Clayt Birmingham quickly jumped at the opportunity to make sure the program continued.

Coach Birmingham explained the reasons behind his decision to continue holding the annual football camp in Stanley. “All the coaches want to help players get better and it doesn’t matter who they are. It’s fun to work with younger youth kids since we always work with college guys to teach the fundamentals and techniques of the game.” He admits, “Football is coming a little bit under attack lately. It’s made out to be something that it’s not. We want to promote the game and teach young kids. It’s one of the best team sports there is. It teaches a lot of good qualities that they can use in life.

He said, “I knew Coach Koenig. He’s a good man.” Coach Birmingham added that he thought it would be a fun camp to see him and his staff and work with his players.”

Coach Koenig shared his thoughts on the success of this year’s program. “I thought the camp was excellent. We started the camp in order to offer an affordable, local skills camp to athletes. The UW-Stout coaching staff teaches the same techniques they teach their own team. It may not be the way we teach it, but it is a great skill base for the students who participate.” He added that the UW Stout staff also commented on how positive and supportive the student athletes are of each other which isn’t something they see at most camps.

 Coach Birmingham agreed. ““It was good. Every year is fun. We watch these kids come from elementary school to middle school to high school, and to watch those same kids develop, it’s fun. In college we only get these young men for four or five years and they are gone, and they are kind of mature when they walk in.  It’s a different level of seeing them grow.”

When asked what he hoped to accomplish at the camp at Oriole Park, Coach Birmingham shared, “to teach young kids the fundamentals and techniques of the game and just to have fun playing football,” adding that by holding yearly football camps they hope to help small towns grow football.

He explains the importance of consistency and to not let outside circumstances stop youth from achieving their dreams. “Even if you are a scrawny little kid someday you are going to grow. My story shows when I was a sophomore, I was a scrawny little runt, and I was ready to quit football because I was undersized. Now I do it for a living. You have to stay the course and stick with it.”

Coach Birmingham mentions that the annual lunch tradition they share with Coach Koenig is secretly one of the reasons why he and the other coaches come back to Stanley-Boyd every year.

“After the first practice we go to lunch at that pizza place right up the road, Martino’s. That’s tradition. We’ve been doing that for years. We have to get Martino’s. That keeps us coming back.” He added, “Good pizza!”