Zephyrhills football team going camping

When the administrators look back at the promises made by then-coaching candidate Jerrell Cogmon, they will see he was true to a promise.

During the interview process, Cogmon researched a handful of camps he hoped to take the Bulldogs to if he was named the program's coach. He let those who interviewed him know he was looking to make improvements to the team any way he could find.

Now that he has the reins of the program, he's leading the squad to the First and Ten, a four-day/three-night outing in Kissimmee.

Zephyrhills joins LaBelle, Naples Barron Collier and Bradenton Prep high schools at the camp, which has taken place since 2005. Players will hit the field at the Champions World Resort.

Zephyrhills will be taking 28 players.

"It'll give us an opportunity to develop more self-confidence against a team that's at our level or that should be at our level, like a Barron Collier," Cogmon said. "We should be able to compete with those guys if we're going to consider ourselves a team that's going to go in here and compete for this district. We should be able to compete with these guys, we should be able to execute and execute with a level of consistency that's going to give us an opportunity to be successful throughout the process; whether they be scrimmages, games or 7-on-7s and trying to develop some of our younger kids."

When the camp is over, Zephyrhills should have played in nine team scrimmages.

Cogmon didn't just take the word of the camp's Web site, either. He did a bit more digging to ensure he was involving his players in something legitimate and productive.

"I found several camps and started reaching out to the people who were in charge of the camps and trying to see how legitimate they were based on the information I have from Sports International," Cogmon said. "I got an opportunity to go and do Bucs linebacker Barrett Rudd's camp, and so I know how they work. And I could find out how close they are to running it in that manner because Sports International does a really good job at getting the kids there, fed, room and board and things like that."

Cogmon and his staff will have their eyes all over the field. They will be evaluating some of their young talent, such as quarterback Chris Reaves, who is taking over for Tyler Guy, who transferred to Freedom. The coaches also are eager to see how defensive tackle Jordan Hunter, receiver Josh Geiger and linebacker Anthony Viernes perform. The staff also is excited about linemen Stephen Cottrell, John Dodd and Duke Morrison. Don't forget about standouts Mike Peterman and Ben Williams.

In addition to this camp and the USF Sling & Shoot passing competition two weeks ago, Cogmon has been adamant that his players work in the weight room.

And they have responded.

"We're getting 35 kids a day in the weight room," Cogmon said. "I'm pulling up at 7:30 or 7:45 in the morning and there are four or five kids already there waiting on me. They've been there, so we've got no complaints about where we are right now. We like our team. We like the camaraderie that our kids have. We're just excited about where we are right now."