Around Iredell Sports

2008 Jun-25

Numbers swell at Statesville camp after 9-4 season

Statesville football coach Randall Gusler observes as campers practice proper tackling during Wednesday’s football camp activities.

By Brian Meadows
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With 39 fellow campers looking on Wednesday morning, awaiting their shot at the tackling dummies, Pierce Conger stepped to the front of the pack and aided Randall Gusler with his demonstration of the proper tackling technique.

Conger, a rising eighth-grader at Mooresville Middle, stood pat as the Statesville High head football coach squared up in slow motion and lowered his shoulder into him.

Improvising for effect, Gusler lifted Conger into the air before gently placing his feet back on the sun-splashed stadium turf.

“He was just picking with me, because my dad and him are friends,” Conger said, grinning.

This week marks the third consecutive summer Gusler has conducted the Statesville High football camp, open to aspiring players in grades 3-8. Those attending the four-day affair begin workouts at 9 a.m. daily and are dismissed at noon.

The environment is conducive to learning football essentials without losing sight of having fun, East Middle rising eighth-grader Jacob Bowman suggested.

“We come out here, have a good time with our friends and learn some new stuff we didn’t know so during the fall, when football season starts, we can relate to it on the field,” said Bowman, who is sporting a Mohawk for the summer.

The camp continues a steady growth. The 40 campers this week are double the 2006 total and up from the 26 participants last summer.

Gusler attributed the sharp spike in turnout this year to building a rapport with local youth interested in Greyhounds football.

That, and “Having a successful football season sure didn’t hurt any,” Statesville assistant coach Brad Borders chimed in.

Statesville finished tied for second in the 10-team North Piedmont Conference, reached the second round of the playoffs and posted a 9-4 overall record in 2007. It was the Greyhounds’ first winning season since 2003.

Early indications are another strong season could be in store this fall. That, at least, was the impression Dartavius Martin gathered Monday morning, when Greyhounds players “showed their support” by attending a portion of the workout.

“The whole varsity (team) came out and was like, ‘Good job, good job,’ ” recounted Martin, a rising eighth-grader at the Academy of Excellence.

“We gave them handshakes, and they told us they’re going to have a good year.”

Conger knows a little about good seasons. He helped Mooresville Middle finish unbeaten in 2007.

The 7-0 victory over Northwest Cabarrus Middle in the season finale clinched perfection, and Conger happily rehashes the story. A starting defensive end, Conger had the opportunity to line up against the son of former Carolina Panther Mike Minter.

“I laid him out of a couple of times,” Conger recalls with a smile.

Conger is the rare exception to Gusler’s approximation that the majority of his campers are “Statesville kids.”

A former Statesville Middle student, Conger said he returned to the Statesville High football camp because he enjoyed it last year.

Gusler believes flexibility plays an important role in maximizing each of his campers’ experiences.

“One big thing that the kids, I think, enjoy the most is we don’t put them in groups saying, ‘You’re a lineman, you’re a quarterback,’ ” Gusler said. “We teach them the fundamentals of all aspects of the game. There might be a kid that’s 6-(foot)-2 and 200 pounds out here, but we want him to know how to throw a football and how to placekick and do everything. … We don’t stereotype.”

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Numbers swell at Statesville camp after 9-4 season

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