Making football specialists feel special at Midwest Special Teams Camp

TIFFIN - Kicking or punting in football can be a very lonely job.

On many high school teams around the state - and even around the country, for that matter - there is only one person playing that position. That can make practicing hard to do.

The Midwest Special Teams Camp is attempting to change that.

The camp, which was founded back in 1971 and was the first of its kind in the country, visited Clear Creek Amana High School in Tiffin to hold its two-day instructional camp, giving more than 30 high school kickers and punters from Iowa and surrounding states an opportunity to hone their skills and work with some of the best collegiate and professional kickers in the area.

'The kicker and punter is such a solitary skill,” said Nate Kaeding, who is one of the lead instructors at the camp. 'You're off on your own on the other field a lot, just working on your own. I think this is a unique opportunity for them to be around other kids that are working on the same skill as them.”

Kaeding has had quite the illustrious kicking career himself. The former Iowa kicker scored 367 points in his collegiate career, was a consensus All-American and won the Lou Groza Award, which is given to the country's top placekicker each year. He then went on to play in the NFL for nearly a decade, the majority of which was with the San Diego Chargers, before retiring in 2013.

And after attending the camp himself, and returning to the area to help coach at the camp since his days at Iowa, Kaeding said he's just happy to be able to pass on whatever skills he can.

'Now, being almost four years removed from the NFL and the game, it's really kind of my one opportunity each year to get around kids that are learning the skill and try to impart some of the wisdom that I've picked up along the way,” Kaeding said. 'It's great to get to do a deep dive into the skill for a couple of days, and get a chance to teach a little bit.”

Nearly every coach working the camp kicked collegiately, if not professionally, too. Current Northern Iowa kicker Austin Errthum and former Nebraska and Philadelphia Eagles kicker Alex Henery both helped out. Getting that kind of talent to come to the camp, director Scott Hale said, is a huge benefit for the campers.

'Both (Kaeding and Henery) now have careers outside of the sport, and this gives them an opportunity to be involved in football again, for a few days at least,” Hale said. 'I don't know what we'd do without them, because they're a wealth of knowledge, and this is a great way for them to share that knowledge.”

While the camp isn't the only skills camp in the country anymore, Hale said it still is one of the most unique - and one of the most beneficial. Many skills camps today focus a lot on the recruiting aspect of football, and will rank kids accordingly among the camp in an effort to cater to scouts and recruiters.

While Hale admits there is a place for that, he believes his camp stands out because they don't do that. His camp is two days of pure instruction, as their goal is to simply give the athletes the tools to improve. And with a smaller group of kids, they're able to split up and get enough individualized instruction, both Hale and Kaeding said, to really make a big difference.

'We really pride ourselves here on the teaching element of the skill, and getting kids not only the technique, but getting them important drills to work on, the psychological component to the game, all those sorts of things,” Kaeding said. 'It might be a little bit smaller, this camp, compared to some of the other ones, but we kind of pride ourselves on that individual coaching and teaching and mentoring that we can provide the kids

over the two days.”

l Comments: ryan.young@thegazette.com