MISSOULA — It may be in the middle of the summer right now, but football season will be here before we know it.
At MCPS Stadium on Friday, Marty Mornhinweg, the longtime NFL coaching veteran who lives in Missoula and is a color commentator for Griz football games with Scripps Sports, hosted his annual camp with some of the best quarterbacks from around Montana and beyond in attendance.
Alongside Mornhinweg was his son Skyler, who is now currently coaching at the University of Colorado, as well as longtime NFL coach Steve Mariucci, a friend and former colleague of Mornhinweg's who was the head coach of both the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions.
PHOTOS: HIGH SCHOOL QUARTERBACKS COMPETE AT MARTY MORNHINWEG QB CAMP
"Any chance I can do something like this, other than coaching my little grandkids, I haven't coached in, I don't know, 20 years, right? So here we go. It'll be fun," Mariucci said.
The camp featured 14 high school quarterbacks in attendance from around Montana, including Florence's Mason Arlington, who led the Falcons to their third straight Class B title last fall, and has been using camps this summer to get exposure and learn from coaches and his peers.
"These guys are good. I don't see these guys in season, but these guys are all up there in that level of competition, and they know stuff that I don't know, and I know stuff that they don't know," Arlington said. "And it's really nice talking to each other and getting to exchange information between each other."
Also on hand was Helena Capital's Merek Mihelish, who recently picked up an offer from Montana's football program, and who was soaking up the opportunity to learn from successful football minds.
"Kind of just learn from everyone, like, right through a drill, or even, like, how they maybe carry themselves, and even from the coaches and learning from them," Mihelish said. "And even if a coach isn't coaching, you just pay attention to them while they're coaching someone else."
As a quarterback-specific camp, each player ran through a number of drills, and from Class AA to 8-Man, like Valley Christian's Daniel Stoltzfus, plenty of the work will translate into the fall.
"I always try to take something out of it," Stoltzfus said. "I even have a little notebook. Try to write some stuff down and go home and try to work on that. And, yeah, just try to get better every day, you know. Just try to always take something out of a camp that, like, I never knew or whatever it is."
Along with those three, other attendees included: Eli Kasberg and Avery Omlid of Missoula Big Sky, Rylan Davis of Missoula Hellgate, Case Cox of Polson, James Torain of Michigan, Tucker Laslovich of Missoula Sentinel, Mac Lundstrom of Helena High, Holden Emerson of Polson, Brody Dooley of Belgrade, Jack Wilson of Oregon, Colton Shea of Butte and Caleb Taylor of Great Falls CMR.
And for Mariucci, he had one point of emphasis for this group to take home.
"I think the main message is, do you know what you're getting into?" Mariucci said. "The quarterback position, really is the most demanding position, really in all of sports.
"Let's face it, and it requires so much and so much work and so many different types of skills, physically and mentally. And kids got to know that, if they choose this position in this path, they better be committed to the sport and be kind of workaholics."
