John Schultz looked out over the sea of purple stretched in front of him and marveled.
The longtime Grandview football coach has seen a lot of amazing things at Legacy Stadium over the years, but the nearly 500 youth football players from the Spartan Youth Club doing their stretches together July 27 made quite an impression.
Under the watchful eye of Schultz and other Aurora prep football coaches, the camp has more than tripled in size over the last few years and ballooned to 22 teams of players between 1st and 8th grades getting in work over three days at Cherokee Trail High School.
‘“Pretty awesome,” said Schultz, who had sons play for the Spartans in the past before joining him at Grandview, where he is about to begin his 13th season as head coach and 17th year overall.
Players and coaches from Cherokee Trail, Eaglecrest, Grandview, Regis Jesuit and Smoky Hill took a break from the grind of preparation for the start of official practice on Aug. 14 to return to their football roots and teach the basics they learned long ago.
The summer has been filled with 7-on-7 events, linemen competitions and camps, but this gave them a chance to focus on the bigger picture.
The beneficiaries of that is the players in the Spartans organization, who along with the Stallions represent Aurora in the Arapahoe Youth League. The organization has existed since 1988 and many of its players eventually go on to feed into some of Aurora’s most successful prep programs.
“Our participation in this camp has gone through the roof over the last two years,” said Director of Football Brian Leivian, who noted a surge in numbers after the Spartans stopped charging parents for the camp two years ago.
“A lot of it is great interaction with the current football players in the high schools who have a chance to give back to the youth in the area,” Leivian added. “A lot of these high school players were former Spartans players and they remember the day when they were in the camp.
“The big kids love to get back and help the little guys.”
All three days of the camp were impacted in some way by rain or lightning, but when they were on the field, Spartans players got hands on blocking and tackling work from some of the best at the prep level.
Schultz and his staff have built Grandview into a perennial Class 5A state contender, while coach Mike Schmitt — who has a son in the Spartans’ program — had Eaglecrest undefeated through the first 11 weeks of the 2016 season before a loss to Regis Jesuit.
The Wolves and Raptors have been the longest involved in the Spartans camp along with Cherokee Trail, which is under the new leadership of coach Joe Johnson.
Leivian said the organization asked past participant Smoky Hill to return and coach John Trahan obliged, while the Spartans invited in coach Danny Filleman and Regis Jesuit this season. Filleman, who has three young sons in sports, coaches one of the Spartans’ baseball teams and Leivian said it was natural to include the Raiders as part of the community.
The Spartans have their version of Friday Night Lights — a series of scrimmages with their teams and some from the Stallions and Parker Hawks — coming Aug. 18, with their season kicking off Aug. 25.
Leivian said the impact of the experience inspires the young Spartans and gives them something to look forward to in the future.
“The kids had the opportunity to practice in one of the nicest stadiums in the state,” Leivian said. “Those 1st graders get on the field and look up in the stands and their eyes get as big as saucers and they realize this is what it’s all about.
“The takeaway is great.”
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
