Varsity Football Players Work with Barnett Students

Football coach Damon Baldwin and Principal Kim Reed came up with an idea for a special mini football camp that had boys and girls at on their best behavior the past couple of months, waiting for the special day to arrive.

Baldwin, athletic director and varsity coach at , serves on the site council at Barnett. When the principal noted unruly behavior on the football field a few months ago, she asked Baldwin to have a talk with the students.

“The kids were playing football, trying to have some fun on the playground,” Reed recalled. “They were playing rough, not playing very sportsmanlike.”

She arranged for Baldwin to meet with boys in the upper grades and go over sportsmanship and good conduct on the playing field. Baldwin promised the youngsters that if they would improve their conduct and “stay out of trouble,” he would come back with some of his varsity players and set up a football camp on the Barnett field.

That day arrived on June 8.

“It’s our community outreach,” Baldwin said. “Get out and give something back to the little kids. We hope to do this at all the elementary schools next year.”

About 50 boys and girls in fifth and sixth grades tramped down to the Barnett field after lunch on Wednesday to meet with varsity players Elias Juaregui, Kwayde Miller, Preston Johnson, Luke Pabbs, Travis Stevens, Dallas Janpen, Ben Wood, Garland Marshall, Josh Mahaffey and Devin Rhodes.

The students split up into five teams with two varsity players showing the boys and girls what to do as they rotated through five stations.

Israel Torres, 12, was one of the students excited about the football camp. “It’s fun,” he said. “It felt really good.”

Gabe Macias, 12, compared it to “just like playing football. It’s really cool,” he said.

The girls were just as excited. Aixa Garcia, 12, said, “You get to learn new stuff.” She’s planning to go out for football next school year when she attends Olive Peirce Middle School.

Jordan Fick, 11, agreed with Aixa and said she may also go out for football, “I might try out next year,” she said. “It’s fun because we got to play with the big football players and we got to run around.”

Assistant Coach Brian Calkins explained that the youngsters would start off with stretching and warm-up exercises, followed by the “icky shuffle” running between small orange cones, side hops over agility bags, “high knees” stepping over minihurdles and footwork drills between two ladders laying on the ground. Throwing the football was another station.

Although it will be a few years before any of the Barnett students turn up on the RHS field, Reed looked at the mini football camp in another way.

“These kids will end up at the high school,” Reed said. “It’s good for them.”