By Josh Aubrey, Statesboro Herald
STATESBORO - The Georgia Southern football team is going through summer workouts and conditioning, but Paulson Stadium was packed last weekend. The folks on hand were not there watching the current Eagles but many potential Eagles were on the field at the annual Clay Helton Elite Camp, which had over 500 turn out.
Some Eagles on the current roster, including Kebba Secka and Elijah McDowell, took part in the camp as high schoolers before signing with GSU. Eight others who were at the camp last year are on the team now, Helton said.
“This is a camp we started when we first got here and it is very important to us,” Helton said. “It’s a great way to evaluate talent and hopefully the kids here come away with some great tools as well.”
As Helton enters his fourth year at Georgia Southern, he has seen a steady increase in the numbers at the camp as well.
“I think in our first year we only had about 250 out here,” Helton said. “Last year we hit about 400 and this year we are over 500. We had to cut off the sign up a couple days ago and we still had quite a few walk ups today. We feel like this helps the community as well as the high school programs around us, and of course, it helps us to evaluate the guys here.”
The evaluation process includes seeing what kind of measurables the players have, and seeing how they look up close with position coaches out there with them.
“First of all, we love to see how the kids compete and if they’re coachable,” Helton said. “The position specific drills tell us a lot. We do a little competition at the end of the camp with some one-on-ones and seven-on-seven work. It is a great day of work for these kids and it also gives us a chance to build relationships with them.”
Helton evaluates the high school players on campus, and his own players who are going through summer workouts. The current Eagles are in week four of their eight weeks of offseason training. Preseason camp opens at the end of the month, and the Eagles have 25 practices before the season opener August 30 at Fresno State.
Helton also praised the work of conditioning coach James Heiss with the player. Coaches now also are allowed to work with players two hours per week, and Helton said it “is really important to get that summer access.”