HELENA — The prospect of triple-digit heat didn’t stop a triple-digit number of Helena area youths from attending football camp Wednesday. And the heat didn’t slow down the Helena High coaches and players hosting the camp, either.
For eleven years now, Helena head football coach Dane Broadhead has led the program’s annual Ambush Camp.
“Just to see the joy on these kids’ faces,” Broadhead stated, “they genuinely love being out here, playing football. It’s going to be 95 degrees today. And they don’t care. They don’t complain. They show up with big grins on their faces.”
Joining Broadhead in corralling the camp’s 150-plus first-through-eighth graders were about thirty Helena High football players.
“But it’s pretty cool for them to give back and be a part of this camp — that they were at this age and doing this not that long ago,” said Broadhead. “So, it’s pretty neat for them to have an opportunity to give back.”
Matthew Marcille, a senior on Helena High’s football team, has volunteered at the youth camp each of the past three years.
“I’ve been doing this camp since I was in first grade, and I always really liked doing it and watching it,” said Marcille. “My brother went through it and stuff like that — so, I’ve always wanted to be a coach. And it’s always one of my favorite times of the summer.”
For Marcille, volunteering at Ambush Camp also serves as a way to relive some childhood memories he shares with his brother.
“I always make jokes to my brother,” said Marcille. “I always beat him in the 40-yard dash — two years running — when we were in second and fourth grade. And I won the camp. It was always fun.”
And for others, those brotherly memories are still being made at this year’s camp.
“I have a little brother who is super into football,” said Helena High senior Tayden Korthals. “So, he’s doing the camp, so I decided to help along with him. [I like to] Just see the kids compete. It’s always fun to see kids compete and get after it.”
