Coconino football coach Tadd Ragan is getting some extra help at what he hopes becomes an annual summer football camp.
Ragan, his assistant coaches and some of his senior players will be joined by five NAU football players at the first youth football camp hosted by the Coconino program. They're all hoping to promote the sport in the Flagstaff community while teaching some of the fundamentals to developing players.
"We wanted to start reaching out to kids and getting people interested in playing football," Ragan said.
He believes the addition of some of the NAU players should bring some extra excitement to everyone involved.
"(The kids) look up to the NAU football players," Ragan said. "Even some of my players might learn something new."
The camp will be split into a morning offensive session and defensive afternoon clinic. NAU offensive tackles Anthony Williams and Alex Mott, linebacker Cody Dowd, tight end Brian Riley and defensive end Isaac Bond will be the Jacks' representatives at the camp. Each player will be responsible for two positions, one for each session.
Williams has worked at football camps before in his hometown of Pinetop and is always thrilled to work with younger players. As a kid, he got to meet members of the University of Arizona's Desert Swarm defense, including former New England Patriots linebacker Teddy Bruschi, which had a big impact on his football outlook.
"It's always a fun experience," Williams said. "It's great seeing the expressions on the kids' faces."
The Jacks participating will fulfill some of their community service obligations. But, it also means a day of playing football, which is more than OK with Williams.
"(I'm looking forward to) getting a day off of work and spending it doing something I love," Williams said.
At the lunch break, there will be a lecture session where the players and coaches dive into the mental side of football and stress the importance of setting goals, education and how to balance academics and sports.
It's the first time the two football programs have worked together at a camp and Ragan hopes to expand upon it after seeing how successful it is. He'll tinker with the schedule depending on how smooth things run.
"We're starting small and hopefully it grows over the years," Ragan said. "We hope to make it a two-day event. Right now, we'll start with one day and see what works."
The idea came up when Ragan was approached by some Coconino boosters who suggested the out-reach program while also adding some needed funds to the football program.
Williams, who has been a friend of Coconino assistant coach Nate Reisner since they were four, was approached about the idea and immediately signed on.
Although promoting the football program wasn't his original intent, Ragan is hoping the camp will foster interest in joining the team. The Panthers should welcome in a good number of new players because of Sinagua's closure.
"Our numbers are going to increase and it's going to be good for internal competition on the team," Ragan said.
As of Thursday, Ragan expects 20-25 kids to attend the one-day camp but will accept last-minute registrations at the beginning of camp Tuesday morning.
The camp goes from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday and costs $50 for ages 8-10 and $75 from 11-14. Each player is given a T-shirt, a DVD of the camp, lunch and two snacks.
Providing the NAU players food is another matter.
"It'll cost me an arm and a leg to feed some (NAU) offensive linemen," Ragan joked.
Jacob May can be reached at jmay@azdailysun.com or 556-2257.