Sandburg Football Campers Follow Lead of Big Ten Recruit Kenney

Come August, recent Sandburg graduate Dan Feeney will be playing football  at Indiana University. On Wednesday morning, he was demonstrating a "bear crawl" drill to fourth- and fifth-graders as part of Sandburg's summer football camp.

Fenney is an offensive guard and knows a little bit about rolling around on the ground and slugging it out in the trenches. He also enjoys rolling around with youngsters in the camp, which runs through Friday.

Over the course of five days, boys entering grades 4-8 are taught some new skills and some old football fundamentals.

"We use the same drills we use during the high school practices," Sandburg assistant coach John Bergin said. "We teach skills they will need to be acclimated with when they get to our program in a few years."

"The primary goal of the camp is to get kids excited and passionate about playing football at Sandburg," Eagles coach Dave Wierzal said. "We target our community and use our beautiful facilities, and we get a lot of positive feedback from parents."

The camp is in its fourth year of existance, and some of the juniors you will see suit up for the Eagles this fall were in that first camp. Bergin, a 1999 Sandburg football alumnus, said he wished something like this camp existed when he was younger.

Current members of the varsity roster help out at the camp, as well as the entire coaching staff. There are about 15 students who have volunteered.

"We set some guidelines for them to follow when they are working with the kids," Wierzal said. "Some of them are here because they've expressed interest in coaching."

"We start at about 9:30 a.m. with instruction, and then for the last half hour we let them play some games," Sandburg assistant coach Jeff Obradovich said. "We teach them to enjoy the game and learn sportsmanship. Over the week, it's amazing how much their footwork improves. Some of them become even more passionate about football."