LIHUE — Several of Kauai’s young, aspiring football players received personal tutelage from someone who has big league experience. Seven-year National Football League veteran Eric Frampton hosted a youth football clinic, in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of
LIHUE — Several of Kauai’s young, aspiring football players received personal tutelage from someone who has big league experience.
Seven-year National Football League veteran Eric Frampton hosted a youth football clinic, in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii-Kauai, Saturday morning at Isenberg Park.
Forty members of the Boys & Girls Club flag football league, ages 12-17, participated.
“Today has been awesome … They have exceeded our expectations,” Frampton said about the kids he coached during his first clinic on Kauai. “I just wanted to come out here and put on a great camp. The expectation was that I was going to watch them and teach them some foundations of football and give them some technical skills.”
He added the kids’ energy and enthusiasm was at a high level.
“They’re eager. I’m trying to bring the energy, but these kids are bringing the energy,” the NFL free agent said. “They got the look, that focused look on their face … Most of the kids, they’re just self starters. I’m encouraging them, but I don’t have to do too much. They’re just taking it and just running with it.”
Aukai Albao, 14, plays quarterback for Kauai High School’’s junior varsity football team.
He said he didn’t expect to get an opportunity to be coached by someone who has played at the NFL level . He hopes to take what he learned from the clinic and apply those skills for the Red Raiders.
“I’m having a good time,” Albao said. “We get to learn things that we wouldn’t get to learn (otherwise) … I’m learning more footsteps and conditioning.”
Bryceson Abigania, 14, is a running back for the Lihue Patriots of the Lihue Pop Warner Association. He said he learned skills to improve his running ability such as “chopping your feet and accelerating.”
“He’s helping us how to do the proper steps,” he said.
Boys & Girls Club Hawaii-Kauai director or programs Christian Naea said the idea to host the clinic happened a few months ago when the club invited Frampton to a rally at Lydgate Beach Park.
“He liked what he saw. He like our mission. He liked that we worked with the youth and he wanted to get involved somehow,” he said. “He’s a football player. We’re running a flag football league concurrently. So we combined both of them.
“That is amazing. Not a lot of kids on the island of Kauai have the opportunity to go through this,” he said. “We’re so excited to have Mr. Frampton come out and implement this clinic for us … The kids are enthusiastic. They have high energy and they love it,” Naea added.
Frampton said he hopes to make this clinic an annual event and to have it more open to the public and not just for club members.
“We had a lot of people calling and wanting to see if their kids can sign up,” he said. “We had a lot more kids that weren’t able to come today … This has the ability to grow and be really something cool.”
