New York Jets head coach Eric Mangini and the Carmine and Frank Mangini Foundation (CFM) are preparing for the sixth annual Football Fundamentals Mini-Camp, which will take place Saturday, June 2, at Mangini's alma mater, Bulkeley High School, in Hartford, Conn.
Since its inception in 2002, the camp has instructed more than 2,000 kids on the fundamentals of football in the areas of offense, defense, and strength and conditioning. In addition to football fundamentals, participants are educated with important life lessons in areas such as competition, teamwork, and striving to be one's best.
With the help of more than 100 coaches, the camp and the foundation's goal is to provide the children with positive opportunities, positive role models and the information to make good decisions.
"I look forward to this camp every year," Mangini said. "Football is a team-building activity that teaches children the importance of work ethic, character development and positive self image. Also, the children at this camp get to interact with people who have used football to be successful in life."
Volunteers, in addition to the coaching staff, take time out from their regular professions as teachers, lawyers, doctors and police officers to ensure that the children have the best possible camp experience and to share how football has positively affected their lives on and off the field.
To sign up for the camp, potential participants should log on to www.cfmfoundation.com and fill out the registration forms. The camp tuition is $45, but no child will be turned away if the cost cannot be met. Because the foundation's purpose is to serve underresourced children, about 90 percent of the kids who come to the camp attend "on scholarship" each year.
Camp Schedule
8:00-8:55 a.m. — Registration
9:00-9:20 a.m. — Introduction
9:25-11:40 a.m. — Practice
11:45 a.m.-noon — NFL Players Presentation
Noon-1:00 p.m. — Lunch
1:00-1:30 p.m. — 7-on-7 Rules/Stretching
1:30-3:35 p.m. — 7-on-7 Games
3:35-4:00 p.m. — Warmdown/Awards Ceremony
About the Carmine and Frank Mangini Foundation (CFM)
The Football Fundamentals Mini-Camp is one of many initiatives of the Carmine and Frank Mangini Foundation that Eric and his brother, Kyle Mangini, named in memory of their father and uncle. A non-profit organization that provides funding directed at increasing opportunities for under-resourced children, the foundation also provides computer scholarships to graduating seniors going to college and mini-grants that provide teachers and coaches with funds needed to pursue projects outside of their budgets. The CFM mini-grant recipients have included students traveling to NASA, a girls' basketball team playing in a summer league, freshman football for all three Hartford high schools, and a high school football team purchasing new equipment to replace used and stolen equipment.
