Tharptown hosts summer football camp

J.R. Tidwell/FCT Nathan Hallmark throws a football to a fellow camper at the Tharptown Youth Football League summer camp held at the Tharptown High School football field on Saturday. Coach Ken Riley, Jr., hosted the camp for the young football players.

THARPTOWN — The Tharptown Youth Football League held a summer camp for local youngsters Saturday at the Tharptown High School field.

The camp saw about three dozen kids learning different fundamentals of the game from youth coaches and former Wildcat players.

“We put on a camp like this two years ago,” Coach Ken Riley, Jr., said.

“Most of these kids can’t afford to go to the bigger camps, so we decided to have our own.”

The campers were divided into different groups based on position.

Linemen, running backs and receivers and quarterbacks all received instruction tailored to the positions they will be playing when the youth league season starts.

“Most of these coaches have played in college,” Riley said.

“It started out as a fundraiser for the team, but it ended up becoming a way of giving back to the community.”

Tharptown will play a jamboree at Phil Campbell Aug. 25, with the regular season starting the next Saturday night followed by each Saturday thereafter until seasons end.

“We are going to have a camp like this every year,” Riley said.

“This year we had 35 kids, which is 10 more than last year.”