With students home for the summer, the classrooms and hallways of Hickory Ridge High School are quiet, but some young students are getting lessons in athletics as part of a series of summer camps at the school.
Last week, Ragin’ Bulls football coach Marty Paxton lead about 30 young campers during a three-day football skills camp, teaching up-and-coming athletes the fundamentals of the game.
“It went really well,” Paxton said. “We had a good group — from all over the county, not just Harrisburg.
“We worked on blocking, tackling, throwing the football, catching the football, ball handling, all that kind of stuff.”
The football camp was one of five such opportunities for children to learn the basics of various sports, including football, basketball, volleyball, cheerleading and baseball.
It’s a good opportunity, Paxton said, for children to get introduced to sports at an early age and start developing needed skills in their area of interest. It’s also a good opportunity, he said, to get them excited about Hickory Ridge athletics.
“You start them out young and you’ll get them wanting to be a Ragin’ Bull,” he said. “Give them a t-shirt, and everyone will know about Hickory Ridge.”
Before he gets to high school, 12-year-old Nick McNiffe is hoping to improve his game in middle school.
“I learned the fundamentals of football and some tips to help improve my game,” said McNiffe, a rising seventh grader at J.N. Fries Middle School. “It will help me probably make my middle school team.”
McNiffe said he learned some tackling drills that he can practice this summer — before football season begins — to make him a better player.
And while making each camper a better football player was one goal of the camp, having fun was also a top priority.
That was perhaps no more evident than during the shirts versus skins scrimmage on the final day of camp.
Even some of the Ragin’ Bulls football players got in on the action, as quarterback Brett Lilly hurled pass after pass downfield to wide-eyed campers.
On the first day of camp, Paxton said some of the players stopped by after their workouts and expressed an interest in getting involved. Paxton said he saw the opportunity as a win-win for the campers and the players.
“It’s good to let these young kids know that (the high school players) where there once,” Paxton said. “And it’s good for the older kids to hear the fundamentals again.”
As the camp came to a close, Paxton was already eager for next summer.
“I want this to be a yearly thing,” he said. “It’s great to see these young kids come out here and be excited and look up to Hickory Ridge football.”
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