I was a summer camp kid growing up. I mean, I was a suburban Jew living in central New Jersey, of COURSE I was a summer camp kid.
I started out at Yellow Duck Summer Camp as a little tot, distinctly remembering doing a big show at the end of the summer where we sang Willie Nelson's "On The Road Again" while holding a fake guitar. I graduated to Rolling Hills Day Camp where I had the crap scared out of me by a counselor who told us the story of Cropsy during a camping trip. From there I moved on to Ivy League Day Camp where I join the travel camp. Every day we'd take a trip somewhere, be it a Jersey Shore arcade, a Mets game or a racquetball club. And finally it was off to Timber Lake West for sleepaway camp. I came back from that with mono, but not for the reason you'd like to think. Apparently it had something to do with rusty pipes. Oh and Jason Priestley showed up one time.
ANYway, I probably wouldn't have attended Syracuse Football's version of summer camp for one very specific reason. It involved a lot of hitting one another. No way my mother would have been cool with that.
Four practice fields behind Syracuse University’s Manley Field House have been filled with football players in helmets and shoulder pads this week.
Orange head coach Doug Marrone started the camp last year, and this week teams from Corcoran, Nottingham, Henninger, Skaneateles, East Syracuse-Minoa, Jamesville-DeWitt, Fayetteville-Manlius and Maine-Endwell are taking part.
Start up a program that gets tons of high school football players from the area AND their coaches on your field and in your midst for three straight days? Clever girl, Syracuse. Clever girl. Tim Green gets why...
"And, you get an opportunity to mix rural and suburban schools with inner city schools, guys who normally who don’t have a chance to come to a camp like this, at this level – and get coached by guys like Rob Moore, Dan Conley and Scott Shafer," Green said. "It has such a huge impact on these high school kids."
Former Orange Donovin Darius even stopped by Tuesday, working with the players and speaking with them as well.