UF Overnight Camp
Sorry this is late, I haven’t had internet since I’ve left Boca.
Last week was the University of Florida’s Overnight Camp. This was a great experience for me. I met some great coaches and managers from around the country, including two managers from FAU. I built a relationship with David Lewis, a manager at the University of Texas, as well as Aaron Winshall, a manager at Syracuse, and Bill Vernon, a manager at the Univeristy of Maryland, and many many more.
I was coaching in the SEC division of the camp, which was high school age kids, and was given the University of South Carolina as a team. In our evaluation games, the group of kids I had was great. They played together and listened really well. They were just a joy to coach.
Then for the “regular season” we were given a random team, so needless to say I was a little upset to lose those kids, but was also just as excited to see my new group of kids. On my new team I had one kid who has the potential to be a stud. As we started playing games, I saw one of the worst things a coach can see, he became uncoachable and was consistantly on the referee’s cases about their calls. Now mind you these officials are coaches in the camp, so not professionals by any means. At one point, the referee told me to take him out after the player argued a charging call. At this point he had a reputation among the coaches, and out of nowhere he cusses at the official, so I take him to our league commisioner for him to deal with. They had a talk, so he came back, but by this time we were eliminated from the “post-season tournament,” so we had an exhibition game, but I wanted to let my team decided if they wanted him to play in it. They voted yes, so I let him sit the first half and I watched how he reacted, and he cheered his teammates on, so I let him play the second half, and he was always passing letting his teammates score and they ended up winning it. It made me proud.
But by the end of camp, I was exhausted and had actually lost my voice. It was pretty bad haha.
Until next week when I’ll have all about Clemson’s Overnight and Team Camps.
Gene
