Youth Football Camp Scores in Plainview

Regardless of what happened with the NFL, there was still going to be football this summer in Plainview, courtesy of the New York Giants.

Ok, so these players are a bit smaller than their pro counterparts, and aren't covered by the new collective bargaining agreement, which allowed the NFL to reopen for business this week. The same determination and enthusiasm for the sport? Present and accounted for.

The Giants Youth Football Camp is being held this week at . Open to kids aged 6-14, it's one of many camps being held around the region, with the goal being to give campers a crash course in what to expect on the gridiron.

"The retired Giants tell you how to get through a football career, and working with high school coaches, you learn what it's like to be a football player," said Kevin Schneider, who plans to try out for the Lindenhurst High football team this year.

The director of the Long Island camps is Greg Lauri, offensive coordinator for John Glenn High School in Elwood. He says the camp, now in its third year on the Island, has been a rousing success.

"Most of the time, the kids are excited about what they've learned, they're happy about it and looking forward to coming back next year," Lauri said.

Campers learn the fundamentals of offense and defense, and are put through a variety of drills that should give them a leg up on the competition when the time comes to try out for the team.

"We try and work on their agility, the quickness of their feet," Lauri said. "We'll give them some drills they can use to increase their speed, then we'll separate them into groups and do position-specific drills."

Along with teaching the skills to be an outstanding player, the camp drills into participants what it means to be an outstanding student, and person. Giants alumni appear at the camp to do just that, and former running back Billy Taylor showed up at HANC to speak to the kids this week.

"The NFL alumni is really about giving back, and we try and make it fun and enjoyable," Taylor said.

Taylor says he stresses five key elements student-athletes need to thrive: school, positive attitude, exercise, nutrition, and manners. It's a message the campers seem to pick up loud and clear, and he says feedback from them and their parents is mostly positive.

"They enjoy it, the parents enjoy it, they get good lessons, they learn discipline from it, and hopefully they'll go on and be successful people, don't have to be a pro athlete, just successful people," Taylor said.

Who knows? Perhaps one day some of these kids will put on the uniform of Big Blue and make it in the pros. And it all started on the fields of Plainview.