It's Sweat and Skills as Lakes Football Players Coach At Lumberjacks Camp

By early evening, this group of football players was sweaty and tired.

But they weren’t playing. Instead, they were coaching.

Led by Lancers head football coach Dave Miller, about 16 players and a group of assistant coaches are volunteering their time this week at the Lakewood Lumberjacks’ summer football camp at

Members of the youth football team are spending the week learning the fundamentals from some of the area’s best. In addition to running drills with the Lakes players and coaches, they will also get tips from Clover Park High School’s team, too, later in the week.

“They do an awesome job of working with the kids,” said Jason Ono, head coach for the fifth- and sixth-grade team. “Coach Miller has been really great about bringing his kids over.”

It’s not exactly a hard sell for Miller, who said that his players have been enthusiastic about helping as long as he has been coaching at Lakes. In 12 years, that has been a lot of orange-and-blue talent in attendance.

“It’s great for our kids and coaches,” he said. “We’re building a bond – and we’re all working for the same thing: getting better at what we do.”

Registration for the camp remains open, and can be done during the sessions from 5:30-7:30 p.m. through Friday. The $25 cost includes a T-shirt.

The weeklong camp focuses on skills development, and players do not put on pads for the duration. About 75 players are grouped by grade level—third and fourth; fifth and sixth; and seventh and eighth.

And the high-school students get the chance to see what it is like to be a coach and mentor.

Ono said such collaborative efforts revitalize the community.

“There’s a lot of Lakewood in this group,” he said. “A lot of the players played for (this) organization when they were younger, and now they are giving back. And the kids are saying they want to play at Lakes.”

Mario McRae, who coaches the seventh- and eighth-graders, agreed.

“They start young and go all the way up and keep that winning tradition going,” he said.

Miller said that he talks to the young players about attitude being of the utmost importance both on and off the field.

“Winning is kind of a by-product,” he said. “If they have a good attitude, they will excel.

“We don’t talk about winning much. We talk about the things that make you a winner.”

So who grumbles more about the work: the kids at camp or Lakes players at their own practices?

Miller laughed. “I’ve never heard the kids complain.”

When it comes to the Lumberjacks’ camp, McRae said the Lakes students never turn down an opportunity to volunteer.

“They just got out of (their own) practice 30-40 minutes ago and they rush over here,” he said.

Lakes senior Zach Banner, said that in addition to giving back to the community, he enjoys the opportunity to teach young players skills his teammates are working on now.

“To give these kids drills at an early age, imagine where they’ll be when they get to our level,” he said, wiping sweat off his brow during defensive-line drills. “This is a good thing to be at.”

Moments later, Malik Washington, 8, watched in awe as Banner and his teammates demonstrated a block.

“It’s good,” he said of attending camp for the second year. “I like doing the drills.”

From behind him in line, Reese Martinez, 10, nodded in agreement.

“I like working with all the team—actually working with them,” he said.

The hardest part?

“Staying in the positions,” he said with a rueful smile.

The Lumberjacks have been around for more than 40 years and are the two-time defending Nisqually Junior Football League Champions at the third- and fourth-grade and fifth- and sixth-grade levels. The coaching staff is comprised entirely of volunteers.

“This is strictly from our heart,” said McRae, who gets calls every Father’s Day from players both past and present. “The reason I started coaching is that I want to make a difference—I want to keep these kids from going to prison.

“If I can sever that bridge, let me go ahead and do this.”

And on any given Friday in the fall, it is easy to spot many of those players in the stands at Harry E. Lang Stadium, proudly wearing their Lumberjacks jerseys as the Lancers battle for victory.

“The kids look up to these players—they want to go to Lakes,” McRae said.

McRae said that the familial atmosphere extends to the coaching staff, too. He and Ono meet up with Lakes group at a coaching conference in Portland every year.

“We’re like the junior-level coaches,” he said. “They want us as part of their program, too, to keep the tradition going.”