BOYNTON BEACH – In what turned out to be a two-day weekend experience, the Pat O’Donnell Football Camp had something for all youth age groups.
Held at the Somerset Academy Canyons Charter School in western Boynton Beach, there were several NFL players on hand to support our area’s current and future kickers, along with a host of elementary and middle school students.
NFL standouts included the likes of O’Donnell (camp host; Green Bay Packers punter; Palm Beach Central 2009 alum; Miami alum), Jon Bostic (Washington Commanders linebacker; Palm Beach Central 2009 alum; Florida alum), Greg Joseph (Minnesota Vikings kicker; American Heritage-Delray Beach and FAU alum), Jack Coco (Green Bay Packers long snapper), Sam Martin (Denver Broncos punter), and Jason Sanders (Miami Dolphins kicker).
For Day 1 on July 9, the focus was on the elementary and middle school students in the Youth Football Camp. There were six total challenges, including one each for kicking, punting, snapping, throwing, and more.
Day 2 (July 10) was the main event, which happened on Sunday as a slew of high school kickers faced off against each other in the inaugural Varsity Sports Challenge.
Below is a list of the following challenges that took place:
•Field Goal/Charting and Last Man Standing
•Kickoff/Charting and Last Man Standing
•Punt/Charting and Last Man Standing
•Long Snapper
Cardinal Gibbons 2023 kicker/punter Robert Hammond III, who transferred this past offseason from Atlantic (Delray Beach), came out on top in the following categories:
•Field Goal/Charting and Last Man Standing
•Kickoff/Last Man Standing
Hammond III connected on a 56-yard field goal to best the field.
“Going into it, I was excited to meet some big league players and also to get some good kicks in with the local kids,” said Hammond III, who has offers right now from Army and Tennessee State. “The camp was very organized. There wasn’t a rush to finish. There was great instruction all around from the pros.”
Suncoast 2023 long snapper Hudson Wharton was rated as the best at his position.
“I had a great time at the camp,” Wharton said. “I had a lot of 1-on-1 training with the Green Bay Packers long snapper Jack Coco. I learned a lot from it and definitely came out a lot better than going into the camp. It was definitely a beneficial day.”
Columbus (Miami) 2023 kicker/punter Christian de Villiers won the Punting/Last Man Standing category with a 51-yard punt average and a 4.71 hang time.
Other top high school performances were:
•Punter/kicker Jay Brockhaus (Pine Ridge) – Top Performer: Punting
•Kicker/punter Constantine Gandis (Christ Church Episcopal School; Greenville, S.C.) – Top Performer: Field Goal/Charting
•Kicker/punter Michael Kern (St. Thomas Aquinas) – Top Performer: Kickoff/Charting and Punting/Charting
Coco (Georgia Tech alum) spoke on how the weekend experience went overall.
“For me to go interact with all these kids from Palm Beach County, it was a blast to have them all out here,” Coco said. “It was great to see all of them have fun. I know they got to learn a little bit of new skill sets in kicking, punting, and long snapping. My drill was long snapping. Overall, Pat O’Donnell means a lot to the community. He does a lot for a lot of people, including me. He did a lot for me to get down here and let me train with them for the train. It meant a lot to me and these kids.”
O’Donnell, who was inducted into the Palm Beach County Sports Commission Hall of Fame this past spring, provided some words of advice for our area’s youth.
“Get the grades you need to go to the next level for college,” O’Donnell said. “That was a huge thing for me. And I just want to encourage them to be leaders in the classroom and on the field. It’s not everyday that these kids can come out and take something back to their individual schools. So having them come to this camp and look up to the men that have basically paved the way for them, it’s something we want to instill in them, create confidence in them, and create a better community in Palm Beach County.”
NOTES: The Pat O’Donnell Camp was sponsored by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission, Keller Williams, Papa John’s Pizza, Storm House Brewing, Zephyrhills Natural Spring Water, and Petrover Orthodontics.
O’Donnell played high school football at Palm Beach Central with Bostic and current Somerset Academy Canyons head coach Alex Gonzalez. All three of them are Palm Beach Central alums from the Class of 2009.
Also assisting at O’Donnell two-day camp experience were special teams coaches Tony Bujega (4th Down Solutions; Kohl’s Kicking) and Matt Starr (Kohl’s Kicking), along with Benjamin 2022 alum Michael Tadros (punter; SMU signee) and American Heritage (Delray Beach) 2024 kicker/punter Jake Weinberg (Kohl’s Kicking 5-star; Lou Groza Award High School Placekicker of the Year finalist in 2021).
PHOTO CREDITS: Somerset Academy Girls Soccer, Ken Stephens, and Hudson Wharton
