The 22nd annual edition of football summer camp begins July 30 through August 3 on the track infield at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS). Camp hours are 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
Tuition for the no-contact skills development camp for players ages 7 to 12 is $120. Equipment will be provided for enrollees, and need-based scholarships are available.
Players can register through the MVRHS website, mvrhs.org/category/summer, or when picking up equipment that will be issued on July 26 and 27 at 5:30 pm across from the high school tennis courts.
The MVRHS website also has information on a basketball camp run by MVRHS boys basketball coach Mike Joyce, and a soccer clinic run by Garry Metters.
The football camp is expected to attract 30 to 40 athletes, though MVRHS returning football Coach Don Herman said this week that as many as 80 Island and summer kids have suited up for past camps.
“We’ve been doing this since 1996 as an instructional camp, started by former athletic director Mike McCarthy, me, and a couple of his friends from UConn to get kids in the football mindset, learning terminology and to just play. The main reason we did it is that off-Island, kids had 7 on 7 no-contact leagues, so we tried to stay even with the camp,” Herman said. He is returning for his 29th season as head coach after two years in retirement.
There will be blocking, but no tackling or taking players to the ground. “It’s a good way to practice the offensive and defensive passing gme, kind of like two-hand touch,” he said.
Herman will also look over high school football talent as he looks to reverse the fortunes of two unsuccessful seasons. “I think the high school program will have 30 to 35 kids,” he said. MVRHS discontinued its junior varsity program last year, and is unlikely to field a JV squad in 2018, given the numbers and already set JV schedules at other schools, he said.
