The Panther Pride Football Camp wrapped up the summer season in Powell, with an increase in the amount of kids in the middle school age group exciting Powell Panther football coach Chase Kistler about the future.

“We call them the older kids, middle school age. The number was a little bit higher than typical, which is good to see because at the high school level we’ve had a couple years of low numbers (in the) sophomore and junior groups, kind of short numbers,” Kistler said. “Then our freshman group is pretty big, so it’s good to see that maybe the future is looking pretty good.”

He said that hopefully that will trickle down to the younger kids,  leading  them to participate more in flag football and peewee football before moving to the middle and high school levels.

Throughout the camp the younger athletes mingled with the Panther players, creating a bond that would help build a fanbase for the Panthers this season while also getting the players more involved in football.

“That’s what makes the camp is our high schoolers running it,” Kistler said. “We always start the camp with ‘we know you guys are here to mingle with our players.’ They’d rather hear from them than us coaches, and it also helps build a good fan base so they pick out their favorite players on Friday nights, and it’s just good all-around.”

Overall, Kistler enjoys the experience for his high school players as well, because it helps them get in the groove just a week before the high school season kicks off.

“It gets their mind wrapped around waking up in the morning and thinking about football,” Kistler said. “It’s just kind of a good little warm-up into the season. Some of them probably haven’t been up before 9 a.m. this entire summer. It’s good for them to get a start, just getting used to the early mornings, being in the heat and having a football in their hands.”

Over the past two years, the camp has taken place in early August, but prior to that the camp typically happened in early June just after school got out.

Kistler said he is hopeful that the camp can return to its early June slot, after a couple of years of Panther Stadium being under renovation the past two summers.

“The last two years we had one year where our turf was being replaced, and then this summer we had our track being replaced so we bumped it to the end of the summer,” Kistler said. “It’s hard to know, you know, at the end of the summer, if parents can remember all of the stuff we send out at the end of the school year. So being at the beginning of the summer might be just a little bit better with having kids knowing when the camp is and parents knowing when the camp is.”

He said that having the camp at the end of the summer also runs into families attempting to squeeze in one last camping trip or back-to-school shopping trip which also takes away some of the kids.

“We might look at pushing it back to where our original June slot was,” Kistler said.

Otherwise, Kistler felt it was a strong camp and turnout for the Panther football team.

“Great camp, kids were awesome,” Kistler said.