Future Golden Bears participate in youth football camp at McKeand Stadium

The future of Shelbyville football is front and center at McKeand Stadium this week for the Golden Bears’ annual youth football camp.

Shelbyville High School head coach Scott Fitzgerald, his coaching staff and players are helping instruct area youth football players and their respective head coaches this fall in a three-day camp.

“It’s just exciting for the kids to be out here and be on (the new artificial turf). We are able to use this one field and we kind of switched up the way we did some things and were able to divide up into their teams … to put their teams somewhere on the turf and utilize it and it’s a little more comfortable,” said Fitzgerald following the completion Wednesday of night two of the camp. “I think the kids really enjoy it.”

Fitzgerald’s first youth camp as head coach of the Golden Bears in 2023 was held on the practice field behind Shelbyville Middle School. The installation of the new artificial at McKeand Stadium was still ongoing at that time.

“This is something I hope will continue to bring kids in (to the program),” said Fitzgerald (photo, left). “We had about 83 or 84 kids here tonight and hopefully we get a few more (Thursday). We had about 75 (Tuesday).

“We are continuing to try and grow. I think we have about 100 kids in that youth program right now.”

For the high school football program to have success, there must be a strong youth feeder program in place.

“This is about building relationships with them, getting them to know me and getting them to know our staff and the guys we have around,” said Fitzgerald. “And kind of the way we did it this year we are trying to build more of a relationship with our youth coaches. So we divided up into their teams and showed them a drill we want them to run, then allowed those coaches to go run the drill with my staff going around and helping those coaches – kind of coaching up the coaches – as they did the drill.”

The whole goal is to teach fundamentals as the building block for future Golden Bears.

“Everything comes off the fundamentals in every sport and everything you do,” said Fitzgerald. “You have to have the fundamentals down. That’s what we really want to touch base on right now here at the very beginning of their season. We want to make sure they get the fundamentals down before they start progressing into anything that is more advanced.”

The high school football program just returned to summer workouts following the IHSAA-mandated moratorium week where coaches and players cannot have contact. That followed a busy June month of preparation for the 2024 season.

“It was a good month. We are a little bit thinner this year than we were last year. We had that really good senior class,” said Fitzgerald. “And we are little bit smaller with our freshman class this year. Our numbers are not right where we want them to be but the kids that are here are working really hard.”

The Golden Bears recently traveled to Franklin College to compete in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 workouts with the Franklin Community High School program.

“I thought we held our own,” said Fitzgerald. “We did a good job, especially in the lines because I wasn’t sure how we would hold up because we were missing a couple of guys on vacation. We were able to have a good week of camp for our kids and they continue each and every day to get better.”

Fitzgerald expects to see more players at workouts in July now that other sports are finishing up summer workouts.

“We are going to build on everything we did in June,” he said. “June is more of a basketball month and we have kids playing two sports. A lot of baseball is now ending too. So we are able to ramp up some of the things that we will be doing.

“We continue to work our conditioning and hitting the weight room every day we are here. We are out here (on the football field) doing speed and agility training. And we are starting to implement our offense and our defense and doing a little bit of one-on-ones and some team stuff out here. We are starting to put everything in place.”

Shelbyville’s “official” preseason scrimmage will be at McKeand Stadium on Aug. 16 against Jennings County – a potential sectional opponent this season.

The 2024 opener for the Golden Bears (3-7 in 2023) is Aug. 23 at home against Greensburg (0-10 in 2023). Shelbyville is at Rushville (3-7) on Aug. 30 before starting its Hoosier Heritage Conference schedule.

Shelbyville is assigned to Class 4A, Sectional 23 this year which includes Bedford North Lawrence (7-4), Charlestown (6-4), Connersville (2-8), Greenwood (6-6), Jennings County (5-6), Martinsville (7-4) and Silver Creek (6-4).