Escalon High School was the host site for the annual Wing T Camp, held over three days this past week, kicking off on Friday, June 19 and running through Sunday, June 21.
“We’re at about 275,” Escalon head coach Mark Loureiro said of participants in the annual camp. “We have Maria Carrillo out of Santa Rosa, they have been coming a long time, plus we have a couple new additions, Gilroy and Wheatland, as well as Escalon.”
As is typical for the Wing T Camp, temperatures soared into the upper 90s, putting some added pressure on the participants. Water breaks were frequent and the players rotated to multiple stations on Friday, working on individual skills and player positioning before getting into some mock competition over the weekend.
“I’m super happy with the turnout,” Loureiro said at the close of the first day’s events on Friday. “We have about 70 kids from Escalon, 33 from the varsity level and then 37 from the JV and freshman levels, we’re doing a lot of work putting the offense in here.”
Team sessions also included some 7 on 7 work, running set plays from scrimmage, as the team looks to sharpen the attack for the upcoming fall campaign. Loureiro said the camp is effective because each group of players – running backs, linemen, quarterbacks, split ends – all get individualized instruction and spend the bulk of the camp together as a group, focusing on their specific skills and tasks needed to help the team.
“We kind of teach it in pieces,” Loureiro said of the offensive scheme. “Then we put it all together for competition with the other schools.”
Camp hours were 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Friday, with Saturday sessions running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and one practice block to wrap up the camp on Sunday, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Many of the teams camped out in tents on the school grounds, staying there for the duration of the camp. Loureiro also serves as part of a travel team during the summer for the Wing T program and will be heading to New Jersey for a pair of camps and helping with one in Pennsylvania as well.
He was pleased with the number of EHS coaches that were there to assist with the local camp.
Brandon Hoover and Matt Loretelli were the varsity assistant coaches helping out, along with Andrew Beam, Joe Cowan and Derek Scott from the lower levels, and retired coach Max Goldstein also came back to help out.
“I was impressed with how much the kids had retained, we saw some speed and it was a good up tempo camp,” Loureiro said. “I was real pleased with our effort.”
