Dayton Football Host Kids Camp

By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

DAYTON, Ore.– It’s been a fun week going into this next week’s ‘Thud’ Camp at Cascade High School for the Dayton High School Football Team.

Hosting kids from First Grade to Eighth Grade, the Pirates are in the twilight of their fourth day of their camp where campers have seen drills, tug-of-wars between the older kids and the campers, slip-and-slides and watermelon treats through one of the hottest weeks of the Summer to this point.

“It’s great, but it’s more for our kids and watching them interact with the youth, coaching the youth, playing with the youth. That’s the big thing for me and seeing us give back to all the kids, and they see all the kids have fun and they remember when…ask all of the High Schoolers, ‘I remember when I was at this camp’. It’s fun and it’s giving back to the community,” said Dayton Head Coach Jacob Peterson. “We’ve pulled out the slip-and-slide yesterday and got after it in 90-degree heat. Little fun things that you don’t get to do. Get a large group of kids out here and have some fun.”

Campers worked on offensive and defensive drills during camp Wednesday, all while playing some fun games in between like Tug-of-War at Dayton High School (Picture By Jeremy McDonald)

Junior Morgan Gallagher points to it being weird at first being the coach instead of the participate as he was when he was the younger. Intimating he describes, but as long as the kids have fun, that’s all that matters.

“It’s definitely weird at first and it can be intimating because some kids just don’t listen, but it takes some ‘umph’ to be loud and they really look up to you and it doesn’t take much for them because at least when I was a kid, the kids older than me I looked up to them regardless of what they did. So they’re just easy to handle, you just tell them what to do and just got to make sure they have fun,” Gallagher said. “Last year we did kind of the same youth camp and it was pretty easy then. It’s just nice to do something that’s fun for the community because I love doing this kid of stuff as a kid.”

Thursday will close out the four-day Youth Camp with one last, fun 90 minute session that starts at 5pm at Dayton High School.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald