Camp Speed offers

unique look at sports
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

All across the country, there are camps to make athletes better. Some make them stronger. Others make them faster. Still others, make them better football, basketball, baseball or soccer players.

They teach the technique of their games. They work on getting from point A to point B so that player A or player B can make team A or team B win games.

However, a lot of those camps don’t necessarily stress fundamentals that aren’t found on the field. Things such as nutrition, avoiding the pitfalls of steroid use and other substances aren’t always addressed.

So when William Thompson, a former equipment manager at Appalachian State and current Riddell representative had an idea to combine all of those things above into a one-day event, he needed help to pull it off.

He found that help from local trainers, strength and conditioning coaches and sponsors. The result is the first annual Speed Camp, which will be held at Watauga High May 24 beginning at 8 a.m. with workshop sessions in the morning, followed by lunch and afternoon sessions on the field.

The fee is $40, plus an addition $5 for lunch that is provided by Subway. Registration for the event began Monday.

“It’s the first camp in the United States with this format,” Thompson said. “There have been strength camps, there have been nutrition camps, and all other camps have incorporated what this camp carries. This is the first camp of this nature that is going to incorporate every bit of all of this in a one-day camp that is affordable to kids.”

It’s a chance for middle and high school players, boys and girls, to learn from the same people who have prepared Appalachian State’s football team to win three straight national FCS championships. ASU strength and conditioning coach Jeff Dillman, his staff, and ASU trainer Justin Smith and his staff, are putting together a program that deals with nutrition, improving eating and living habits and becoming a better athlete.
Thompson said he got the idea for the camp after seeing headlines in the papers involving steroid use by athletes such as Olympic champion Marion Jones and baseball player Jose Cansenco.

Jones, a North Carolina graduate, won five medals in the 2000 Olympics, but had to return them after admitting to using performance enhancing drugs. Her teammates on her gold-medal relay team also had to return their medals.

Cansenco, a former All-Star with the Oakland Athletics and a veteran of several other major and minor league teams, has written two books about his steroid use and the use of steroids by other major league players.

Thompson wants to let current and future prep and college athletes that there are other ways to reach their goals without making shortcuts with steroid use.

“After what has happened with Marion Jones and the Jose Cansencos and the issues in professional sports with steroid usage, and having worked under coach (Jerry) Moore here and the success he’s had of staying away from steroids and doing it the right way, I just sat down and talked to Daryl Roberts my pastor, to Jeff Dillman and to the staff here and we tried to come up with a camp that we could get this message across,” Thompson said.

Dillman said he wanted to show that it’s not just enough to train to become better. Athletes will not benefit from their effort if they don’t train correctly. He hopes the camp will show athletes the dos and don’ts of training.

“We want to show the men and women that you don’t need to take drugs to gain speed and power if you train the right way,” Dillman said. “The biggest stereotype out there is that more is better. That’s not true now. It’s the right type of training, the quality of the training.”

More isn’t necessarily better. We want to filter that out to those kids.”

Dillman said there will be four stations in the field for the athletes to apply what they learned in the workshops. Dillman cautioned that an athlete who runs a 5.0 40-yard dash won’t suddenly run a 4.5 by the end of the day. But that same athlete will learn how to run more efficiently, which could prevent an injury in the future.

“We want them to know why they’re doing those exercises,” Dillman said. “A lot of people ask how can you become faster? You’ve got to develop power to the ground and move it forward.”