Games We Play: Tackle Football - IFL to open with regional mini-camps

The Israel Football League announced on Friday the opening of the 2008-2009 football season with the introduction of the league's first-ever mini-camps.

By JERUSALEM POST SPORTS STAFF
flag football 298.88 (photo credit: )
flag football 298.88
(photo credit: )
The Israel Football League announced on Friday the opening of the 2008-2009 football season with the introduction of the league's first-ever mini-camps. These camps are the first opportunity of the new season for teams to meet and practice and they mark the official start of pre-season training. Both veteran and rookie players are expected to be in attendance for the mini camps. With the league's planned expansion this season from the original four teams that played in the inaugural 2007-2008 season to a seven team league, there will plenty of rookies in attendance at camp. The camps will be lead by Dr. Eric Cohu, a professor of Sports Management at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia and previously the Head Football Coach at Jackson Christian School in Jackson, Tennessee. Coach Cohu is leading a contingent of six football coaches from the United States who will be running the football clinics in Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel-Aviv and Beer Sheva. It was during Coach Cohu's visit to Israel during the 2007-2008 regular IFL season that he became captivated with the work of the IFL and made the commitment to organize other coaches to train IFL players. The Cohu Football Training Camp is sponsored in part by Nashville Sporting Goods of Nashville, Tennessee, USA. "Since the end of the Israel Bowl, the final game of our 2007-2008 season, both veteran and rookie players have been excited to get back out on the field. With over fifty new players joining the league for the 2008-2009 season, we have a lot of work in front of us and we expect to give our fans even more great football to watch this season," said IFL commissioner Eric Amkraut. Coach Cohu and his staff will be travelling across Israel from July 10 to July 17 to run the clinics and provide regionalized training to the IFL players. The visiting coaches will be holding camps for each individual team and running programs that have been tailored to the teams' individual offense and defense schemes. "The goal of these sessions will be to drill the fundamentals of winning football and to enhance the skill level of every IFL player," says Coach Cohu. Coach Cohu and his staff will be in Haifa (Kibbutz Ein Hashofet) on July 10, 11 & 12; in Jerusalem (Kraft Stadium) on July 12 & 13; in Tel Aviv (Sportak) on July 14, 15 & 16; in Be'er Sheva on July 16 & 17. The Cohu Football Training Camp for the Israel Football League sessions are open to the public.