Indiana's Kevin Wilson Wants to Give Back to 'His State' With Free Camps
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Written By Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)
The Hoosiers have had plenty of success in the state of Indiana for their 2017 recruiting class and head coach Kevin Wilson wants to give back by hosting free high school camps throughout the state and region in a campaign called #INvasion. On Wednesday Kevin Wilson and his staff will be making a tour of the local Indianapolis Metro-Area high schools to give back to their communities with a free camp to showcase their skills for both IU coaches as well as coaches from smaller schools in the area. Wilson and the Hoosiers also had a camp on July 24th in the Ft. Wayne area and recently completed one in the Chicagoland area as well as in south Florida. Currently, the Hoosiers 2017 class features 10 payers, four of them coming from the Hoosier State.
At Big Ten Media Day on Tuesday WIlson said, "I felt like a great deal we're doing five camps in our state for free. We're not giving them T shirts. We're not giving them meals. We're not giving them anything, but I want to reach back to my state, my coaches, my guys, my state."
Coach Wilson compared it to the spring recruiting day where coaches bounce from one school to the next, "we had one in Fort Wayne the other day. We'll have four camps on Wednesday, and it's almost like a spring recruiting day. I see Coach DiNardo sitting back there. It's just like an old spring recruiting day."
Wilson broke down how Wednesday will work for him and his assistants explaining, "instead of going to the school, we're going to show up at 9:00 o'clock and have the linemen camp at one school. 11:15 we'll be at another school with the skill camp. Take a break, and at 5:00 o'clock, come back with another linemen camp on the other side of town and then a skill camp at 7:00 o'clock that night."
Wilson's goal in all of this is to make the state of Indiana better at football and increase in-state high schooler's interest in IU football. It gives back to the community and is a great opportunity for the players as well.
"I thought it would be a great way all these guys are talking about helping the game, but they're flying around in private jets. Their LLC is not playing for the traveling expenses. It's coming out of the recruiting or discretionary budget.
Hey, if we want to make the game better, and that's the gist of why as coaches, I want to make a commitment to my state. We'll see if it goes. I hope we have phenomenal turnout. We've got a bunch of coaches from a lot of small schools around our state and some of the max schools come and help us."