Kicking camp draws young athletes to RHS

By Brannon King for the FCT

Any successful football team knows that the kicking game is an important part of winning games, and young kickers, punters and snappers got the opportunity to learn from Coach Mike King and his group of instructors to improve their skills at the 2017 Shoals Kicking Camp held at Russellville High School Friday.

The campers got the unique opportunity to learn from perhaps one of the best and most experienced coaches in King. The owner and operator of Shoals Kicking Development where he conducts camps and gives private and group lessons around the Southeast, King is the kicking coach at the University of North Alabama and also helps out with various other camps. Since 1989 he has been holding a camp in the Shoals area.

About 45 children from Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee participated in the camp this year – most of them coming from the North Alabama area. According to King, Shoals Kicking Camp is the oldest privately-owned and longest running kicking camp in the Southeast – and maybe even the nation, as far as privately-owned kicking camps are concerned.

“We are a fundamental camp, in which we try to give these young men drills that will help them be better kickers for their high school,” King said. “We do a lot of things that show them that if they will take the time and the energy to accomplish these drills, it will make them a much better kicker.”

For many years, the camp has been held at the Russellville stadium, and now with the artificial surface playing field, the campers get good footing to kick. That helps on occasions