COAL MOUNTAIN, Ga. — It was your standard summer padded camp, but North Forsyth and North Hall had very different goals on Wednesday and Thursday at North Forsyth High School.
The host Raiders were using the two days to get needed reps for younger players as they try to rebuild at several key positions in 2025. The Trojans, meanwhile, were looking for more fine-tuning as they return a wealth of experience from a 2024 Region 6-3A title team.
But no matter which approach a team takes at these annual summer camps, there seems to be a common theme: physicality.
“This is the closest you can get to a game-type simulation,” North Forsyth coach Robert Craft said. “For guys who still have a big learning curve, this is so valuable for them. That's the biggest thing for us, is just a lot of reps and a lot of rotation, a lot of substitution with a lot of young guys getting reps against good competition.”
“Our focus is the physicality of competing against another team,” North Hall coach Sean Pender said. “You know, sometimes you can go 7-on-7 and stuff like that in the summertime, where you're getting good reps and good competition, but you're not getting into the physicality aspect. So for us, we try to maximize our opportunity of doing that, just to get us used to the physicality of the game.”
This year’s camp in Coal Mountain featured the likes of Brookwood, Mill Creek, Lambert, Cambridge, Lumpkin County and North Hall, who all made the playoffs from Class 6A on down last year. Lumpkin attended on Wednesday but was not there on Thursday. The Raiders, who compete in the state’s largest classification, missed the playoffs in 2024 by just one game.
Pender was intentional with his selection of the North Forsyth camp for his smaller squad.
“In June, we do one over at Habersham, and it’s good competition,” he said. “But most of the teams at that camp are our size that we're playing against (during the regular season).
“Here in July, we come over to this one where we know that there's going to be a lot bigger schools, because seeing that type of competition, those are the type of teams that you're going to see when you go deep in the playoffs or you're trying to win a championship. It’s by design.”
Craft said his choice of invitees runs along the same vein of thinking.
“We want solid teams here, playoff teams. And that's what you're out here for,” Craft said. “You've got a lot of these teams who had double-digit wins last year. So, yeah, it's good work for everyone.”
An added bonus for North Hall was the return of senior quarterback Smith McGarvey to the practice field this week after resting his arm most of the summer following an injury during baseball season. McGarvy was part of a QB tandem with senior Alex Schleiman, who has been full strength this summer after rehabbing an injury of his own suffered late in the 2024 season.
“Both of (our) quarterbacks are really doing a good job,” Pender said. “They have different styles, but both of them are maximizing their potential. Alex has had a tremendous summer, and he's benefited a lot from taking a lot of these reps while Smith was trying to get back. Smith has been healthy these last two days, and he's starting to get back to his form.”
Despite the different avenues of approach, both coaches said they are getting exactly what they wanted from the two days of work in the brutal Georgia summer heat.
“We're young and we’re still growing, and we're learning who we are every day,” Craft said. “And you have cycles of that, where you have young teams. We are young, but we're going to be talented. It's just we need this experience (against really good teams), and so that's why these days are so good for us.”
“Fine tuning is a good way of saying it,” Pender said. “We're just trying to fine-tune and get ready for the season and be able to clean up some mistakes. I like where we’re at right now at this point in the summer.”
