Instead of being on vacation, competing at a swimming meet or just lounging around, over 60 Kingsburg youths participated in a youth football camp Saturday at Kingsburg High School.

The turnout put a smile on the face of new Kingsburg High School varsity head football coach Dave Steele, who was the organizer of the camp. The camp presented an opportunity for younger players to learn basic football fundamentals.

Topics such as strength and conditioning, proper hydration, sports injuries and sportsmanship were discussed.

"This year, we increased some of the things we were doing," said Steele. "We were trying to more skills related things." The afternoon was filled with fun and hitting the bags.

The turnout was about the same as last year. For the second straight year, the camp conflicted with the Central Valley Recreational Swimming League finals. This time, that meet was held in Visalia. According to Coach Steele, a couple of the kids came to the football camp early in the morning before heading to the swim meet later on in the day.

"The cool thing about that is that the kids are trying to get here and they are trying to do both," added the coach, who was assisted by his entire coaching staff (varsity, junior varsity and freshmen) and some of the players.

"The organizational part of it was much more streamlined this year," said Coach Steele. "We had Ramon Perez cook hamburgers for us. There were some things we gave out to the kids. It is a real good thing here for Kingsburg.

Key donations came from Royal Vista, Odwalla of Dinuba and Buddy's All Stars. The donations helped feed the campers, coaches and helpers and allowed them to have plenty of water.

"It is a little warm but it is not terrible," said Coach Steele. "The boosters helped me with organizing, registration and the shirts. Some of the boosters mentioned by the coach were Sheri Steele, Valerie Thiessen and Tami Plemons. "There were also many, many more. I would hate to leave anybody out."

The coach also gave this reporter a Kingsburg Football t-shirt. He hopes that the t-shirt would be worn in Selma.