Coach Matt Burgbacher and his Tipp football coaching staff decided to put a different twist on the annual youth football camp this year, as they combined the middle school and pee-wee players into one week-long camp that ended last Wednesday at the stadium.

“The camp is right about where it usually is, maybe a little bit more,” Burgbacher said, stating about 150 total kids attended their camp. “It has been great, and Monday we didn’t know how it was going to go with this being the first year we ran them at the same time, but our older guys at the high school are awesome.”

“That is who these young guys want to work with are the high school kids, because that is who they are going to come out and watch on Friday nights. They have done a great job coaching the kids up, giving high-fives and doing the little things. The couple of kids I talked to after the first day of camp couldn’t wait to come back.”

One of the most rewarding things for Burgbacher is the chance to watch his high school kids work with the young athletes.

“It is very rewarding,” he said. “To see them be an extension of our staff to the younger guys, it is the good culture we have built at Tipp. Even after these kids graduate, it’s not one of these jealousy things of hoping they don’t do good because they are not there. It’s more where they helped build the program and they want to keep it going and that is how these kids are now.”

“We put our kids in a position where they just have to do it,” the Tipp coach added, talking about putting the high school kids into a leadership role. “It’s one thing to talk about it, it's another thing to go out and do it.”

The coaching staff separated the kids and put them together with kids around their grade, incorporating their offense and defensive schemes to the middle school aged players.

In all, Burgbacher was pleased with how camp went.

“Everything has been positive and this is the one time where all of these kids can interact together.”