SCRANTON, Pa. — Sunshine splashed on Valor Field at Scranton Memorial Stadium Tuesday morning.
“All I want for you guys is to enjoy football as much as I do. That's saying a lot now. Right as much as I do. And to do that is to understand how the fundamentals work so we are going to get fundamentally better today,” said Mark.
Around 80 football campers 3rd grade to 11th ready to learn the fundamentals from Lackawanna College Head Football Coach Mark Duda and his staff. A first individual skills camp for Coach Duda and hopes of many more to come.
“It's fantastic. These young guys are coming for our first annual camp from 3rd graders to 11th graders and they seem to be having a good time too,” again said Mark.
After the early morning stretch the kids split into 4 different groups. They ran the 40-yard dash, then they did the shuttle drill, followed by the medicine ball throw and the broad jump. All in fun. But at the same time learning the fundamental of football.
“How was the 40? The 40 was awesome. What is the key to that? The key is like you have to get a good jump. You got to make sure that you are in the right stance, and you have your head down, and make sure that you are doing your hardest,” said Ben.
“He is teaching us a lot about the drills and what the college players do when they are older like that. You going to have some fun today? Yeah. What did you learn so far? That we have to keep our head down when we are running our 40,” said Duffy.
“How important is technique? It is very important. I feel like technique is better than feeling body and all of that because I am a skinny guy, but I feel like technique that if you got technique then you are good,” said Shamyrr.
Once this individual skills camp is complete Duda starts his focus on Thursday's football combine for rising seniors and the graduates from 2024.
“You want to make this fun but at the same time you want to kind of teach them the basics of preparing to play the game of football. You know football is a fantastic game, and it's a fundamental game. So the more that you teach those the more entrenched they get. The better a guy is going to be as he goes on so hey teaching it right is way more important than teaching them a lot,” added Mark.