By all accounts, the Champions Training for Success football camp was a success.
Roughly 70 football players of all ages and skill levels turned out for the week-long camp at the Sweetwater Recreation Complex.

Campers stayed busy with agility and conditioning drills, tutoring from former college and pro stars at their individual positions, and plenty of inspirational talks from camp leaders.
However, the camp, which wrapped up its third year on Friday afternoon, almost never happened.
"This camp almost didn't happen, " said Sam Brown, a Sweetwater native and co-camp coordinator. "I thought about not even doing it but I thought about it, prayed about it, and decided we needed to do it."

Fortunately for those involved, the camp did go on as it has the last two years.
The list of guest instructors was a dream lineup for any University of Tennessee football fan.
Former stars such as Bruce Wilkerson, Terry McDaniel, Eric Westmorland, and Reggie Cobb all played a major role in the camp.

Atlanta Falcons running backs coach Gerald Brown was also able to make it for the second straight year.
All the counselors were directed by two men from rival programs - Sam Brown, who played for the University of Louisville, and Clyde Rudolph, a former standout for the University of Kentucky.
However, the two camp leaders found a common ground in the way of the football camp and were both impressed and pleased with how the week went.

"We were really impressed, " said Brown. "This was our third year and me and Clyde work hard to put this thing together. The kids came out and responded well. Just as every other year, I think a lot of kids learned some things."

Rudolph was equally as impressed with the group and enjoyed watching the players improve.
"The kids we got out here this year did a great job. They improved from day to day. The first day is a little tough because the kids are anxious and don't know what to expect, but that second day and third day they typically improve quite a bit," said Rudolph.

The camp was broken up into two groups, with ages 6-12 working out on Monday and Tuesday. Players ages 13 and up came out Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
All players went through a number of drills to improve their agility, conditioning, and skills related to their specific positions.

And while most involved with the camp consider this to be a banner year, Rudolph said he believes it was directly related to the camp leaders being better prepared and working out some of the kinks.
" I think the difference between year one and three is on us as coaches. The first time out you're going to have some things that set you back because you don't really know what to expect yourself as far as planning a camp like this. We did good in the first year but in year two and year three I think we really stepped up our game and fine-tuned what we were doing in drill work and getting the kids from station to station," said Rudolph.

But of all the things both counselors will take away from this week, Brown says one that he's most proud of is seeing the players develop from the first year through this latest camp.
"A positive thing I like to see is kids that came here the first year that could barely get through these drills, and now you see them and they're just masterful at them," said Brown.

And as the camp wrapped up Friday afternoon, Brown left the campers with something to look forward to.
"We'll be back in 2010," Brown said to the campers.