By MARK MOLINA| Staff Writer
SAN BENITO — After making multiple stops in the last week, the Texas A&M Kingsville football camp made its way to the Rio Grande Valley.
The annual event set up shop at San Benito’s Bobby Morrow Stadium for the second year in a row Thursday morning and was met with a large turnout, showing Texas A&M Kingsville head football coach Daren Wilkinson that the passion for Texas high school football is just as strong in the RGV.
“We went last week up to camps in Houston and San Antonio and we had a camp at our campus earlier this week,” he said. “Now, we’re down in the Valley. The thing that’s awesome coaching football in the State of Texas is that high school football, no matter where you are, is king. The kids all love to play and they come out and work hard in the heat with the sun beating down on them. They come out and have fun. I love coming out to these camps and seeing these kids run around, work and get some good learning in.”
Despite high temperatures, more than 120 kids, ranging from grades seventh through 12 th , turned out to participate in the two-hour camp.
The TAMUK coaching staff covered quarterback drills, skill position play, offensive and defensive line play, secondary techniques and even some kicking in the short time frame.
The camp tour this week kicked off on Tuesday on the Texas A&M Kingsville campus, moved to San Benito Thursday morning and finished at McAllen’s DQ Fan Field with a 4 to 6 p.m. session.
Though the camps have been short, Wilkinson said he hopes to leave a lasting impression on the local athletes that come out.
There’s not a ton of time to teach a ton of things,” he said. “We do want to teach them fundamentals. These kids are at the age where they learn things very quickly, so we want to teach them the basic ways to do things and the correct ways to do things. That’s our goal, that they leave with just one thing learned and that they get better at one thing today and they’re a better football player.”
The lower Valley was well represented Thursday as kids from Mercedes, Brownsville and everywhere in between were in attendance.
San Benito athletic coordinator Ramiro Partida said the turnout from surrounding cites was a big positive for not only San Benito, but for RGV football.
“We’re trying to promote the Rio Grande Valley to the next level and having these coaches coming down here maybe gives these kids an opportunity, Partida said. “Sometimes these kids don’t know what’s out there. So by having this little camp, they feel good about themselves and even put their name out there. Some of our kids got to the next level because of these camps. So we’re excited to have hosted again and hopefully we can do this for the next couple of years.”