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About 250 high school student-athletes honed their skills and learned life’s lessons at Mississippi College’s football camp.
Players from across the Magnolia State and into Louisiana spent more than two hours Tuesday at Robinson-Hale Stadium getting tips to improve their game. The visitors also received words of encouragement to succeed in the classroom.
It was a team effort as talented coaching staffs for the MC Choctaws and Louisiana Lafayette Ragin Cajuns combined forces for the second year in a row.
With the May 31 camp winding down, MC Coach John Bland spoke to the teens about the importance of achieving great things off the field. He noted with pride that the Choctaws football team recently honored 38 MC players selected Academic All-Gulf South Conference.
Bland and his coaching staff will constantly preach academics before MC opens the 2016 season against the Point Skyhawks at home on September 3. The Choctaws travel to face Florida Tech in Melbourne the following Saturday before returning home September 17 to face GSC rival West Alabama.
With camp winding down on Tuesday, Ragin Cajuns head coach Mark Hudspeth offered a similar message to encourage the football players to make smart decisions off the field. Hitting the books, not skipping workouts, and never posting “bad stuff” on Twitter were among his sound pieces of advice.
A Louisville, Miss. native, Hudspeth recalled playing football at Robinson-Hale Stadium earlier in his career, back in the 1980s. Starting his 6th year at Louisiana Lafayette, his Sun Belt Conference teams compiled a 40-24 record, including wins at the New Orleans Bowl. The Ragin Cajuns open the 2016 with a home date against Boise State on ESPN 2 on September 3.
Visitors like Justin Nelson, 17, a Northwest Rankin starting wide receiver, said the MC football camp was simply “a great experience.” But the incoming senior from Rankin County is really just getting started. Justin plans to attend football camps later this summer at Cornell University in New York, and at Southern Miss and Mississippi State.
During a sizzling day in Central Mississippi, Meridian High middle linebacker C.J. McClelland, 16, said the MC camp was helpful – from position agility drills to learning to step up his work ethic.
The next MC football camp is set for June 7 from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. that Tuesday. Registration begins at 3 p.m. at the James Moody Adams Fieldhouse.
Activities on the Clinton campus May 31 began a steady diet of sports camps at MC, including golf, basketball, and soccer in June and July. There’s also a girls softball camp scheduled at Traceway Park in Clinton September 13-14.
An MC Choctaws team shootout on June 4, and team camp June 9-10 are the key dates ahead for Lady Choctaws Coach Paul Duke and his assistants to kick off the summer hoops program.
“It was a great way to learn about your team,” said coach Jed Kanengiser, who led his McLaurin High Lady Tigers basketball players during six MC summer hoops camps starting in 2010. “They’ve grown as players over six consecutive years of attending,” adds Kanengiser, new head coach of the Long Beach High Lady Bearcats basketball team.
The MC men’s basketball camp led by head coach Don Lofton begins with overnight camp June 19-22 and team camp June 16-18. Among other dates: women’s soccer camp will be June 11 and July 9 (the cost is $80), and there’s soccer camp for boys and girls, ages 4-15, on Longabaugh Field in Clinton on July 21-25 at a cost of $120. Golf camp runs from June 29-July 1 for boys between the ages of 12-19 at a cost of $450. The cost is $250 for the girls softball camps (entering 9th-12th grades) September 13-14.
For more details on MC summer camps, contact continuing education director Ken Gilliam at 601-925-3264 or gilliam@mc.edu
Photo: MC Choctaws assistant coach Cory York, graduate assistant Payton Gray and assistant coach Edgar Weiser are pictured at football camp at Robinson-Hale Stadium May 31.
