Browns tight end Kellen Winslow huddles with participants at his football camp at North Olmsted High School Saturday. (West Life photos by Larry Bennet)

Browns tight end Winslow kicks off first camp
By Jim Horvath
Sports
Published July 23, 2008

With Cleveland Browns training camp opening today, there’s already a strong sense of anticipation for the upcoming season and the success many hope will come with it.

Last weekend at North Olmsted High School, nearly 120 youngsters got a taste of what it takes to get ready for the season as the Browns’ All-Pro tight end Kellen Winslow ran his first Kellen Winslow Football Camp. Boys from throughout the Cleveland area got to run drills and play actual games with Winslow and other pro players, including Browns backup quarterback Ken Dorsey and former Browns defensive back Leigh Bodden.

A number of local high school and college coaches ran various skill stations which specialized in the game’s basic fundamentals. The seven-on-seven games were a favorite part of the day, not only for the players but for the parents watching on the sidelines as well.

Young Tony catches a pass during drills last Saturday morning at the first Kellen Winslow Football Camp at North Olmsted High School. Nearly 120 youngsters learned the passing game from area high school and college coaches, as well as Winslow himself.

With Winslow being a receiver, a big emphasis of the camp was the passing game. Each youngster not only received two T-shirts, but a pair of receiver gloves as well.

The camp was run by ProCamps out of Cincinnati, which runs similar camps featuring professional players throughout the United States.

“We’ve been running these camps for about eight years now,” said Tim Boesken of ProCamps. “This year, we’ve got 22 camps like this, and it’s split around 50-50 between football and basketball. Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat just finished a camp in Florida last week.

“We’ve also done a camp down in Cincinnati as a fund-raiser for the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame, but mostly its football and basketball. We’re basically a one-stop shop for pro athletes who want to run camps like this. One thing we won’t do, though, is run a camp for an athlete who won’t be there to participate. This is our first camp in the Cleveland area,” he said.

Winslow’s camp also partnered with the Boys & Girls Club of Cleveland. “We offer up to 50 scholarships at our camps,” said Boesken. “We always want to make sure that kids who want to participate can do so, and they get all of the things the other children get, the T-shirts, the gloves, lunch, the whole thing.

“We’re able to do that through our sponsorships, and there are times that we get additional sponsors and can offer more than 50 spots,” he added.

Cleveland Browns tight end Kellen Winslow shows proper pass catching techniques during his camp last weekend at North Olmsted High School.

Later in the morning, there was also a training session on one of the side fields for high school players. Most of the players were from Lakewood, John Marshall and Rhodes. Instructors from Ignition Athletics Performance Group of Cincinnati ran players through a number of conditioning drills, showing various dynamic stretches and putting them through a plyometrics workout.

“We think it’s important to help develop the youth of our community, to develop their potential,” said Sgt. Joshua Nitz of the Lakewood recruiting office of the U.S. Army. The Army sponsored the conditioning event, along with the National Football League.

“Whether they wind up joining the Army or not isn’t the big thing here,” said Sgt. Nitz, who along with fellow soldiers were dressed in full fatigues despite the hot, humid conditions. “We know that the same principals used to be successful on the football field are the same ones you need to be successful in life.

“This is one of our favorite things to do. Our slogan is now ‘Army Strong. Family Strong. Community Strong,’ and we enjoy getting out of the office and away from the paper work and doing things like this to make our community better,” he added.

But the big star of the day was Winslow, who was there from beginning to end. He and Dorsey, who led the University of Miami to the National Championship game against Ohio State, showed campers how to run a variety of pass routes, along with little tips on how to get their feet in bounds on the sidelines and how to catch the ball with their fingertips.

“I use these gloves because I like to catch the ball on my fingertips,” he explained to the campers. “I practice over and over, and that’s one of the reasons I have soft hands. You don’t ever want to see the palm of your hand on the football.

“You want to have soft hands, but you have to have strong hands as well. I think that’s the most important thing to work on,” he added.

North Olmsted head football coach Mike Ptacek demonstrates for a group of young campers at Kellen Winslow’s camp last Saturday.

Dorsey threw a number of passes to the young players during the drills, but so did Winslow. When the seven-on-seven games got underway, Winslow quarterbacked both teams on his field. Youngsters had the thrill of catching a Winslow pass, some of them for touchdowns.

Some of them went for interceptions as well, but a smiling Winslow didn’t seem to mind.

He even brushed off a botched play as he slipped to the turf when he rolled out of the pocket. Everyone simply went on to the next play with the anticipation of catching Winslow’s next aerial.

At the end of the day, Winslow talked to the players about working together as a team, that football is a team game.

“It’s all about being unselfish,” Winslow told them. “There are going to be times when your number isn’t called. We’ve got guys like Braylon Edwards and Joe Jurevicius. Maybe I have to run a route to clear out a defensive back so Braylon can make the play. I’m a tight end, so maybe I have to make a block for Jamal Lewis.

“It’s all about helping the team win,” said Winslow. “You’re going to get the ball, but you’re not going to get it all the time because it’s a team game.”