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Football camp features six head college coaches

Tom Backhus' Vail Summer Football Camp is next week. Backhus has run the camp for more than two decades. This year's coaching staff features five head college coaches
Special to the Daily |

If You Go

What: Vail Summer Football Camp

When: July 13-16

Price: $100, with discounts for multiple teammates registering together

To register: Go to VailSummerFootballCamp.com, call Tom Backhus at 970-471-0440, or email TBacko@aol.com.

Information: Camp is held in two sessions, a morning session for kids 2nd through 5th grade, and an afternoon session for 6th through 12th graders.

Video of individual 6-12th grade players will be reviewed daily with the players and coaches after practice.

A certified athletic trainer will be on the field throughout the camp

It is a non-pad, non-hitting camp based on technique work, agility drills and a better understanding of the game

EAGLE COUNTY — The state’s top college head coaches will headline this year’s Vail Summer Football Camp roster, topped by two of Colorado’s Division 1 programs.

Air Force Academy coach Troy Calhoun returns and is joined by new Colorado State University coach Mike Bobo.

“We now have six head coaches coming from around the state of Colorado. There’s not another camp out there that even comes close to this kind of camp instruction and exposure to coaches,” said Tom Backhus, a former national championship player and Division 1 coach who has run the camp for two decades.



There are still a few spots left for player to sign up for the camp, Backhus said.

It’s all about instruction

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The four-day camp features non-pad technique instruction, and youth coaches are invited to come to the camp and spend time on the field picking the brains of the college coaches who will be offering their knowledge, Backhus said.

“That’s open to coaches at any level, youth leagues, middle school, high school — any coach at any level,” Backhus said. “Coaches can ask questions about technique and training, drills and anything else, while players are getting excellent instruction from top-flight coaches.”

The camp breaks players into two sessions: players in grades two through five and players who are in sixth through 12th grade.

Every player plays every position in the session for the younger kids.

“Even the short kids get to play quarterback, and that’s something I completely understand,” said Backhus, who won a national championship at Ohio State and played under Woody Hayes. Backhus also coached at the Air Force Academy and Notre Dame.

The practices for the older kids are broken down into positions and videoed, and they finish the session by watching those videos to improve their technique, Backhus said.

The younger kids go in the morning, and the older kids are in the afternoon.

About the coaches

CSU has ascended to the nation’s top echelon of college football programs during the last two years. Bobo takes reins of the program.

Calhoun has made the Air Force Academy football program one of the best in the Mountain West Conference. Air Force had posted three straight losing seasons from 2004 to 2006 before his arrival. His teams have posted the most MWC wins in the school’s history in a seven-year span.

Brian Cabral is the Indiana State head coach and the University of Colorado’s former linebackers coach.

Backhus started his coaching career on Hayes’ Ohio State staff, and continued coaching there when Earle Bruce took over as the head coach after Hayes retired.

Backhus followed Bruce to coach on the staffs at the University of Tampa and then Iowa State. Backhus left Bruce when he went to the University of Wisconsin.

Bill Parcells hired Backhus at the U.S. Air Force Academy to be the Cadets’ offensive line coach, and eventually the offensive coordinator.

After the Air Force Academy, Backhus coached at Notre Dame.

He landed in Vail after the Notre Dame stint. He started visiting the valley when he was with the Air Force Academy.

When he left coaching, he moved up here full time. Among other things, he and his wife, Tess, ran 4 Eagle Ranch in Wolcott.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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