Steelers coach replaces Roethlisberger
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
By Bill Brink, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin works with kids Monday at his camp at Mars High School.
With hundreds of attentive kids sitting cross-legged around him, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin preached the fundamentals of a proper tackle.
"This is a collision game," he said as Tomlin's volunteer, a small camper whose white camp shirt dwarfed his frame, took aim at a yellow tackling dummy. "If you want contact, play basketball."
So began the first day of the Old Spice Coach Tomlin Football Camp, a three-day affair from Monday to Wednesday at the Mars Athletic Complex. Twenty-five coaches from local high schools and colleges taught drills to the campers, ages 7 to 14.
In the corner of the end zone, coaches displayed the proper stance and first step of an offensive lineman. Nearby, campers learned to run a 5-yard hitch route and throw a spiral. Older kids caught flare passes in the opposite end zone and practiced swim moves to help them get to the quarterback.
The camp attracted all kinds of kids, including hard-core players in athletic shirts and Under Armour cleats to those in Chuck Taylors and jean shorts. But all the kids loved Tomlin, who weaved through the drills and offered insight.
"What you want is a flat back. That is a beautiful thing right there," he said, commenting on the stance of one particular defensive lineman-in-training.
"We want to give them value, for their parents' money but, really, for their time," Tomlin said.
Tomlin, a self-described "camp kid," knows firsthand the value that this type of camp provides.
He learned the proper way to throw a football from former Maryland coach Bobby Ross at one camp and played for Brian Baker, now the defensive line coach of the Carolina Panthers, at another.
"Every time I see [Baker] I remind him that he was the coach of my team when I was 11 years old and then he yells at me for reminding him how much older he is than I am," Tomlin said.
After the drills, the teams played 7-on-7 games. At one point, a rather large camper walked up to a team and asked, "Mind if I play quarterback?"
That was Steelers tight end Heath Miller, who talked to the kids about everything from the Super Bowl to his favorite color.
Trey Flythe, a 15-year-old guard and center from Dover, Pa., caught a touchdown pass from Miller during the scrimmages.
"It felt like I was in a real game," said Flythe, who had never seen an NFL player up close before.
Chris Mills brought his 10-year-old son, Chase, from Louisville, Ky., for the camp.
"It's the only one I even considered," Mills said. "I've never been to Pittsburgh, I've been a Pittsburgh fan my whole life."
Shelley Berbach's son, Luke, tried to attend the Ben Roethlisberger Football Camp last year, but it was full, so she promised him he could go this year.
Roethlisberger asked Tomlin to run his camp this year after the Steelers; quarterback was accused of rape in Georgia in March. He was not charged with a crime.
Luke, 8, plays soccer and baseball but has never played football before.
"He's very athletic," Berbach said. "This isn't mommy's choice. He wanted to give it a try, and I thought this would be a great opportunity."
Trey's dad, Corey, said he would have sent Trey no matter who ran the camp.
"I would have sent him out regardless," he said. "I wasn't even thinking about that."
The Post-Gazette is one of a number of sponsors of the camp, including Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Power of Bowser, Bridgestone, Outback Steakhouse, McDonald's and Fifth Third Bank.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10173/1067375-66.stm
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