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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

PELHAM – The Pelham Panthers opened the doors of Ned Bearden Stadium to the community on July 16 and 17 as they taught local kids during the Pelham Football Camp while area youth coaches learned from the Pelham staff at the second annual coaching clinic.

“It was a good two nights that got a lot of fun work done with kids and a lot of good quality time with coaches as we shared some of the things that we do on a daily basis with our kids and things that we think they can take into their third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade teams that they can do to get them ready as they transition from youth football to middle school football to high school football,” Pelham head football coach Mike Vickery said.

The Panthers worked with Pelham Parks and Recreation to open the camp up to any kids who had signed up to play tackle or flag football for the upcoming season through Pelham’s youth leagues, leading to a turnout of about 85 area kids.

The kids spent day one of the camp working on offensive skills by teaching them the same drills that Pelham players do while adding in some competitions like relay races to keep the camp fun for everyone.

The kids then flipped to the other side of the ball for night two by learning defensive skills like tackling through bag drills and other activities to teach them the skills they need to be successful.

Vickery and his coaches and players focused on teaching the kids fundamentals so that they have a solid foundation for future growth while also instilling a love of football to keep them coming back.

More than anything though, he hopes that this camp leads to more kids playing football for Pelham in the future to help the program continue to grow.

“We just want the kids to enjoy the experience, to enjoy the game and continue to grow the game as best as we can,” Vickery said.

It was also an educational two days for the coaches of those Pelham youth players as they learned how to teach their players from the Panthers coaching staff.

Last year’s inaugural coaching clinic was on a separate day from the youth camp, but after the success of the clinic last year, Vickery and his staff decided to combine the two in an efficient way that worked well for both the kids and coaches.

While the Panthers offensive coaches taught the kids skills on day one, the varsity defensive coaches were in Pelham’s football facility teaching the youth coaches the drills and techniques they had to offer. The groups then flipped for day two with the offensive coaches leading the clinic while the defensive coaches took the field with the campers.

Vickery’s ultimate goal for the clinic is to create a strong connection with the youth program to create a cohesive learning system from youth football all the way up to varsity so the kids can learn the same way they will be taught in high school.

“The biggest thing is just we want to get our coaches involved as much as we can in our youth programs so those coaches know who our coaches are, they share that contact information with them so that when there’s questions like, ‘Hey coach, what do you do in this situation, how do you teach this?’ then there’s that dialogue,” Vickery said. “The basic fundamentals of tackling, blocking and the things that are so important to the game, we always want to share the way that we teach those things.”

Another important reason the varsity coaching staff builds those contacts and relationships with the youth coaches is so the varsity players can get involved with the youth teams.

Whether that looks like coming out to youth games or practices or helping out with the teams, Vickery and the Panthers want to get the players involved so the kids can feel the support from their heroes and tighten the bond even more between youth and varsity football to create one program.

“We preach that our program is Pelham’s program and that’s from kindergarten on up through their senior year,” Vickery said. “So, we want to have those guys, those coaches, those players at our games and our practices as much as they can and just kind of welcome make sure there’s no barrier between the two, make sure they know that they’re welcome to be a part of our program as much as they want to be.”