Don’t forget, we have former KU star, Jake Sharp as a special guest at both the Pratt and Kansas City Mega Football Camps this year.  Don’t miss out on a chance to participate in the longest running full-contact camp in the state of Kansas, and if you want to make camp even more exciting, BRING YOUR WHOLE TEAM!!  Camp is always more fun w/ your teammates, and we also offer team discounts to make our low price even lower!  Contact us for details about a discount for your team.

Once timed at his KU pro day running the 40 in a blazing 4.34 seconds, and putting up 19 reps on the bench press at 225 pounds, Jake has now turned his time towards training Kansas youth on speed and football.  He will be at our 10th annual Mega Football Camp in Pratt that takes place, June 13th-16th, as well as the Olathe Mega Football Camp, June 20th-23rd, and will be there to work with all of the young athletes in attendance.  Jake grew up in Salina before attending KU, and will follow in our long line of bringing local stars to our Mega Camps, like Darren Sproles, Harrison Hill, Jon McGraw and Mark Simoneau.  We are proud to host the longest running full-contact youth football camps in the state of Kansas, and glad to have Jake be a part of our team!

Be sure to start talking to your friends and teammates about coming to camp with you because camp is always more fun w/ your friends.  We’ll have a lot of exciting events planned to celebrate our 10th year, and will be lining up some special guests as always.  As many of you know, last year we had current Miami Dolphins Running Back and former KSU star, Daniel Thomas at our Pratt camp; and had current Kansas City Chief and former KSU star, Jon McGraw at our Olathe camp.  We’ll announce our special guests for this year’s camps soon.  Be sure to follow us on our Facebook page so you don’t miss any chances to win prizes or other giveaways!

The camp dates for this year are:

Pratt Mega Camp: June 13th-16th at Pratt Community College

Olathe Mega Camp: June 20th-23rd at Mid-America Nazarene University

Camp registration will open on Monday, March 5th, and the “Early Bird” discount will run until May 1st so don’t miss that.    See you in June!

Our second camp of the summer will also take place in a familiar location, as we return to Olathe, KS and Mid-America Nazarene University. As always, we will have a great group of instructors lined up, and we are working hard to provide special guests to celebrate 10 years as we’ve done in the past. Stay tuned to our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages to follow all the JJD Sports news as we make announcements about our 2012 camps. Our schedule will be announced shortly, and registration will open shortly after. We hope to see you all in June!

As our 2011 Mega Football Camps draw near, it’s time for parents to start preparing their sons for the best camp experience they can possibly have.  We know you are looking forward to having 4 quiet days at home without your son(s), and we are happy to take them off your hands for you!   But before we do that, put just a little preparation in at home to make sure he’s ready to go the day camp registration rolls around.  For the next few days we will be releasing various tips to help all you parents out there get ready for camp.  We’ll start you off w/ a very important one today:

Eat and drink properly before and during camp -

Now, we hope you already do this at home, but we realize it can be hard to curb the sodas and junk food all the time, especially when they’re out of your sight.  We’ll do our best to keep them away from the soda machines and ice cream during camp, but if you can start this ahead of time that will make it even easier.  Kansas in June is hot, add the full pads into the mix and the boys will be losing a lot of fluids during the day so they must stay hydrated.  Nothing is better than water for them obviously, but sports drinks do work well to replenish nutrients lost during exercise … the less sugar the better.  Make a concerted effort to talk to them about this before camp, and even implement this plan ahead of time so they come into camp hydrated.  We don’t want them spending all day on the sidelines w/ the trainer cause their stomache hurts from too much sugar.  This was just a very simple tip, but one that can go a long way towards a successful camp.

Parents continuously come to me w/ the question, “my son wants to play tackle football this year, what should I do?”  Before I can muster an answer, more questions get rattled off, like “is he ready to play tackle yet, or should he continue playing flag?”  Then the big one comes, the driving force that is naturally behind every parent’s hesitation – “is he going to get hurt?”  The million dollar question.  What I tell them from my 8 years of running full-contact youth football camps is a very unoriginal answer, but it’s the truth.  We can never tell who is or isn’t going to get hurt, and football is a naturally violent sport where injuries do happen at all levels.  No one knows their son better than the parents, but what it ultimately boils down to is how comfortable you are with the football situation in your community, school or club; all the way from the quality of coaches to the quality of equipment used.  To me, the benefits of football far outweigh the risks, but I encourage all parents to do their homework in their town.  Football is hard work and coaches have a terribly difficult job, but don’t ever expect it to be easy on your child to play the game … one of the worst things you can do as a parent is lead your son to believe football will be easy because nothing will be further from the truth.  I once had a parent contact me after a camp and say “you promised in your orientation speech that there would be no pressure on the kids, and I don’t feel that was the case.”  I won’t get into what I actually said during orientation, but just remember parents, you’re child cannot escape pressure when playing football at any level.  Simply executing a drill during practice in front of your coach and teammates to prove you understood what was being taught carries pressures w/ it … no different than a teacher calling on a student in the classroom to answer a question.  The great thing about this type of pressure is that will prepare your son for many different situations in life.

At our full-contact Mega Football Camps for 3rd-8th graders we have been lucky enough to this point that we have not had any serious injuries (knock on wood).  Most are common complaints from elementary and middle school aged children related to their helmets being uncomfortable, or simply wanting to take a break to sit w/ the trainer.  A coach once told me, “don’t put up a tent at camp, otherwise your trainer will have a lot of company all day long.”  He was right.  Of course, we do have some legit injuries like ankle sprains, bruises, etc. that go along w/ playing football, but there are 2 or 3 instances every summer where a kid gets tackled, or his knees bent awkwardly back where I think surely it’s time for our first call to the ambulance.  They always seem to pop back up and I’m left thinking about the days when I was once that flexible.

The most important thing to know is that to be eligible in this drawing you must be a fan on Facebook.   If we get to 500 fans by October 15th we’ll do a drawing for a free camp!   Once you are a fan, for each person you refer who also becomes a fan you will get an extra entry into the drawing.  Just tell your referrals to become a fan and then go back to our Facebook page and post who referred them in the designated post… if they don’t do this we will have no way to know you referred them.  We’ll tally the results and do the drawing once the results are in.

Remember, once you are a fan no matter if you were one of the original 229 fans we’re starting with, or someone who was referred, you are eligible; and then if you refer people to become fans you will get more entries as well.  If we get to 1,000 fans by the 15th then we’ll give away two spots!!

We start today, and remember, to be eligible in the drawing just visit our page on Facebook and become a fan.   Let’s make it happen!!

Pratt All-Camp Team – Senior Division

MVP - Mark H. (Andale, KS) / Levi K. (Andover, KS)
QB - Adam T. (Wichita, KS)
RB - Jace B. (Andover, KS)
OL - Nick S. (Andover, KS)
DL - Mark H. (Andale, KS) / Levi K. (Andover, KS)
WR - Alex B. (Wichita, KS)
DB - Bryce K. (Andover, KS)
LB - Hunter K. (Kingman, KS)
Returning Camper Leadership Award - Hayden B. (Eudora, KS)
Most Improved - Wyatt L. (Andover, KS)

Pratt All-Camp Team – Junior Division

MVP - Cordell W. (Tulsa, OK)
QB - Lawson L. (Meade, KS)
RB - Max M. (Andover, KS) / Cordell W. (Tulsa, OK)
OL - Greyson C. (St. John, KS)
DL - Trenton P. (Hays, KS)
WR - Jadon K. (Pratt, KS)
DB - Garrett R. (Pratt, KS)
LB - Dawson R. (Burrton, KS)