Of all the camps we go to every year the Nike Football Training Camp is certainly the premier event.  Yes it is Nike; the gold standard in all sports.  And when you say Nike Football the thought crosses your mind that it has to be big.  And that is how they do things.

From the banners on the wall to the SPARQ training equipment and branded imagery everywhere the Nike Football Training Camp (aka NFTC) has a different feel to it.  The kids in line are usually very quiet and many a little awe struck.  Being in a big time college training facility will do that to a guy and Saturday at the Moshofsky Center at the U of O was no exception.

Soon enough though all of that gives way to the game itself with a high energy and high paced set of drills erupting at what becomes a blinding pace for some of these guys.  

"Wow, this is intense.  Hard.  But I love it," said one hopeful catching some H2O between drills.

The Camp itself works for one reason and it is not the Nike swoosh or the fancy set up; but hey that helps.  No it is the Staff.  They are not only great people and terrific Coaches but they are very team oriented.  Things work and the group is cohesive and flow really well together.  In fact the organizational team who handle set up and break down, registration, and camp management are just as strong as the group of amazing Coaches they have out there.

Some of the regular Coaches at the Nike Camps include:  Matt James, Natron Means, Kenard Lang, Lecharles Bentley, Dan Hawkins, Chris Gizzi,  Chuck  Wiley,  Barry Foster, Eugene Jackson,  Montrea Holland, Eugene Jackson, and Michael Fletcher just to a name a few.  The combined football including NFL Experience in that group is unrivaled.

So from us watching with wide vision the Coaching and the Staff make this one work.  Isn't that the way it is in life?  It is the people in almost all cases that define the best experiences we have.  Nike's NFTC Camp is a 5 Star experience as a result.

Here is a tribute to some of these awesome people from the camp at Oregon Saturday.