Chris Eaton
About 150 kids ranging from eight years old to high school-age had the chance to learn the ins and outs of offensive and defensive line play from current college players that played the game during their high school or college years in Arizona. It was the Dawg of the Trenches Camp put on by AK Dawgs last Saturday at O’Connor HS in North Phoenix.
The camp coaching roster featured Paul Fanaika, who played at Arizona State and went on to have a seven-year career in the NFL, including a pair of years as the offensive guard of the Arizona Cardinals (2013-14).
He was joined by a large staff of 17 current or former college players – all of whom played their high school ball right here in Arizona. The coaches for the event were: Jayden Ahboah (Desert Edge – UNLV), Isaia Glass (Queen Creek – Oklahoma State), Ryan Davis (O’Connor – Kansas State), Zone Wierenga (Chandler – San Diego State), Braeden Kaowili (Moon Valley – Adams State), Duke Frye (Notre Dame – Drake), Kingsley Ugwu (Sahuaro – Fresno State), Mason Chorak (Saguaro – UAB), Amare Ta’ase (Saguaro – UNLV), Colby Garvin (Queen Creek – Arizona State), Max Garcia (Desert Edge – Rocky Mountain), Connor Coleman (O’Connor – Arizona Christian), Jake Burrow (Notre Dame – Tulsa), Jacob Holmes (Chandler – Virginia), Derrick Brown (Queen Creek – Northern Arizona), Quintin Robinson (Desert Edge – Northern Colorado), and Alex Sanchez (Mountain Ridge – Northern Arizona).
These players possess years of big-game experience at a high level. They also each have a unique perspective of what it takes to make a top lineman and they were willing to share some of this knowledge and expertise with each and every camper on the fine details of both offensive and defensive lineman positions. This helped the campers get the most of every minute they were on the field.
Throughout the afternoon, the players went through a series of drills, separated by either the offensive or defensive side of the ball. There were six stations for each one and the campers rotated at intervals to run drills, learn techniques, and fundamental aspects from different coaches. The groupings were done by age, so each subset was at a similar level. After that, each age group was brought together to run some one-on-one drills against one another. Finally, there was a “tournament” for each age group running one-on-ones with MVP awards handed out to each age group.
The event was put on for the first time by AK Dawgs Technical Training & Recovery. It is a training facility that is owned and run by Austin Kartchner, a former Highland offensive tackle (Class of 2018). Kartchner later played for a couple community colleges in Kansas before suffering a career-ending injury.
“I think the kids enjoyed it and got to learn a lot,” Kartchner said. “We did a good job giving them an opportunity to get coached up by different people in different ways.”
The philosophy of the company is to have all age groups learn the same thing, just at a different pace as they get older. This way, they can understand it and be ready for high school or college.
It was impressive that Kartchner was able to get so many former local high school players back to help out with the event.
“It’s them loving the coaching and wanting to help out the community and the kids,” Kartchner said.
Ahboah went from Desert Edge to Fort Lewis College (Div. II), where he played for two years before transferring to UNLV. He felt indebted to Kartchner, who he trains with.
“He helped me along the way to my college career,” Ahboah said. “So today, I came out to help him too. I think all the techniques from today’s drills can help the younger guys get to the next level.”
The growth of Arizona as a state producing college football players assisted in Ahboah’s recruitment.
“I went to a well-known school that had a couple of big recruits,” Ahboah said. “A lot of schools came and watched them, but they also watched us too.”
Kaowili went the junior college route after graduating from Moon Valley. He first attended Scottsdale Community College, but it was while he was there that the Maricopa Community College District was cutting football from all of the JC’s in the county. He went to Ventura CC in California and then finished up his college career at Division II Adams State (Colorado). During the drills portion of the camp, he was working with Fanaika. Kaowili was excited to be working with the next crop of football recruits.
“Once you hang up the cleats, you taste the outside world a little bit and then you remember what was so sweet about high school sports,” Kaowili said. “The atmosphere around it makes it special.”
Growing up, Kaowili’s dad took him to lineman camps at Scottsdale Christian Academy and Arizona State University.
“I think it’s awesome that parents will do that,” Kaowili said of all the kids there that allowed their sons to attend the camp. “It is more exposure for them as well as being able to learn new techniques and get some competition.”
In the high school category, Jacob Geschwentner and Jordan Robins were awarded the MVP’s for defensive and offensive side of the line, respectively.
Geschwentner, a sophomore defensive tackle at Sunnyslope, enjoyed being coached by college players that were in his position not that long ago.
“It was super cool,” Geschwentner said of the camp. “They have experience and I could help learn from it.”
Defensive line play includes needing quick hands after violent collisions with linemen on the other side to push or pull their arms as to not get trapped or blocked. This skill is known as hand-fighting.
“I’m trying to work on hand-fighting and getting good body position,” Geschwentner said of what he’s working on before his junior year.
Robins plays on both sides of the line at Centennial and was pleased to get different instruction from the college coaches.
“It was a very fun experience to see what techniques they use at the next level,” Robins said.
His takeaway from the event was the pulling drill and the reminder to set his feet back. While upper body strength is important (hence all the weight training), proper foot positioning is equally critical to establish leverage.
“I’m looking at my feet and my mobility,” Robins said for areas he’s working on before his sophomore year.
A couple of the other young linemen that stood out were Justin Klootwyk, a junior at Horizon (on both sides of the line) and Leighton McKenzie (6-3, 290), a junior offensive lineman at Saguaro.
One of the best sights was the coaches that had instructed the campers in the first part of the afternoon cheering them on during the tournament. From the eight-year olds on up. As you might expect, the offensive players cheered for the guys on that side of the ball and the D-Line ones rooting for the pass rushers. There was also respect shown among the campers after battling a player on the opposite side (sometimes for three straight reps). It was a change of pace from the showmanship that sometimes occurs in 7’s play for the skill postion players.
The price point wasn’t bad for the campers ($30) for three-plus hours of instruction and competition. While much of the attention goes to club 7-on-7 play with tournaments for them beginning this month, Kartchner provided a place for the bigs to get some work done on a beautiful afternoon.
“Not many people do stuff for the big guys,” Kartchner said. “So I wanted to try and build something we can do for O-Line and D-Line and hopefully, it gets bigger every year and more kids come out.
Reach Chris Eaton at gridironarizona@yahoo.com or DM at @gridironarizona with story ideas.
