Upbeat Eric Mangini Hosts Annual Football Camp

[F.Chowds]

By DESMOND CONNER, dconner@courant.com

The Hartford Courant

9:48 p.m. EDT, June 4, 2011

HARTFORD—

—You watch the way Eric Mangini bounced around the fields at Bulkeley High and Colt Park Saturday, you didn't see a man discouraged about being out of work.

For the first time in the 10 years of Mangini's one-day Football Fundamentals Mini-Camp, he was not coaching in the NFL. He was fired in January after two seasons as head coach of the Browns, who hired him after the Jets fired him from the same job after three seasons.

But none of that seemed to matter — at least for a few hours. Mangini, a 1989 Bulkeley graduate born and raised in Hartford's South End, was in his element, working with kids.

Saturday's camp was a testament to the growth of the event. About 800 high school players from Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey took part in the camp, which has hosted more than 6,000 athletes in its history.

"It's been … sustainable," said Graham Martin, the coach at Sport & Medical Sciences Academy who coached Mangini during Martin's long career at Bulkeley.

"And where else are you going to get this kind of camp, where each kid gets coached up by this kind of level of coaches?" said Hartford Public coach Harry Bellucci, also Mangini's brother-in-law. "It's been amazing and the kids are so focused when they come."

About 60 NFL coaches, including the Jets' Rex Ryan and his assistant Bill Callahan (who coached the Raiders and Nebraska), joined 42 college coaches to lead youngsters through drills and encourage them through lively 7-on-7 games in the afternoon. The campers were treated to lunch between sessions.

They were also treated to encouraging words from Mangini about moving forward on the football field and off.

Mangini got encouragement and support, too.

"Eric is a great coach but he's a better person," said Ryan, who led the Jets to the past two AFC Championship Games after replacing Mangini. "He is a phenomenal coach, but in this business you're going to get fired; that's just a fact.

"Sooner or later I'll be in the same situation, but it's nothing about him. He's a tremendous coach and a tremendous person. This event that he has every year just speaks to that. He's out of football, yet all these coaches come back. … You just want to help him out as best you can. I'm sure it won't be long and he'll be back on the sidelines."

Mangini has kept his humor, taking a playful jab at some of the NFL coaches.

"It's the first coaching any of them have done since the end of last season. And I'd say they were a little rusty, early," Mangini said. "But they picked it up."

Ryan played quarterback in a receivers drill and threw a lot of deep passes.

"I threw like 1,000 passes and my shoulder, I mean, it's gone," Ryan said. "I was done after the first 100 throws but I threw about 1,000."

Mangini always looks like a kid in a candy store at the camp. He is extremely hands-on and approachable for all the players and coaches.

"We all appreciate it when he comes back and does this camp," said Bulkeley junior fullback Jorge Mena. "All the attention you get from all the coaches is great. ... You can learn a lot out here."

That's the goal. And that's just the way Mangini wants campers to feel as they leave, besides understanding structure, discipline and how to conduct themselves on the field and off.

That's why Mangini conducts the camp, whether he's an NFL head coach or not.

"When I went to Bulkeley, I saw a lot of good kids who made some poor decisions because they really didn't have good opportunities," Mangini said, "and I always felt if I could, I wanted to create some opportunities for those kids to make better decisions. That's really been the basis and the foundation of this camp, to bring back these coaches as positive role models on the field. But the things they're also teaching about schools and learning from their coaches and teachers, to me, that's great. I've seen a lot of it sink in."

Mangini's goal is to keep the camp going as long as he can. It was clear Saturday he's got support from the coaching fraternity. But, yes, he would like to get back to doing what he was born to do — coach.

"I haven't ruled anything out — done a little TV, some speaking engagements," Mangini said. "To me, what's important is to find something that fits really well, to find a place I can believe in and that I can really help grow and be successful for a long time."

[SenorGato]

Scumbag probably made Rex ride the bus there so he could coach him down.