The kids have their day in last day of team camp at Princeton

The summer schedule has belonged to the coaches preparing their athletes for the upcoming fall football season at Princeton High School.

The last day of team camp, belonged to the kids.

Princeton Tiger head coach Ryan Pearson called an audible on Friday, calling for a day of team-bonding with a morning of fun actives at the pond owned by Tiger booster Jim Scruggs.

There were no helmets and shoulder pads. There were no drills or plays to run.

There was just fun.

“These kids it seems are so busy compared to what it was when I was in high school. Just seems like kids don’t have a chance to be kids with everything they are involved in the summer between basketball, travel baseball, the weight training we have,” Pearson said. “We said, ‘You know what, the end of camp, we’re going to do some team-building activities that have nothing to do with football.’

“We cooked hot dogs for all our kids. We did different competitions. We had egg tosses, bear crawl relays and sweat shirt relays in the lake, different things like that. The biggest thing is, whatever we do, we want to do it together and build that camaraderie that I think really helps once you get into the season. It gets the the kids around each other. They thoroughly enjoy each other’s company.”

While he doesn’t have an official count, Pearson said more than 150 hot dogs were consumed, observing some players with four hot dogs on their plate.

PHS senior Augie Christiansen said it was the perfect way to end the summer session.

“I think this day was definitely needed,” he said. “We focused up and got a lot done this week, so it was nice to be able to go out and have some fun today.”

Pearson is giving the team an addition week off in additional to the required one week off leading into the first day of fall practice on Monday, Aug. 8. He wants them to continue to have fun the rest of the summer.

“You know what, ‘Go swim, go fish, catch a baseball game. Just go enjoy being a kid,’” he said. “I just think that’s so important. Kids don’t have a chance to be a kid anymore and I think it’s sad. I really do. We want our kids to get away. Decompress and just enjoy time with family and friends.”

Source: The Daily Chronicle