A pair of Super Bowl champions selected a pair of Vernon football players as some of the top athletes at the Sports International Football Camp in Seattle.
“It was really great to have that caliber coaches and NFL players looking at you and helping us out,” said Kitzman.
Carson Labrecque and Tye Kitzman were selected to the Gridiron Elite Club at the football camp led by former NFLers Lawyer Milloy and Bruce Irvin.
Milloy was a safety and played from 1996-2010 when he retired with the Seattle Seahawks. He won Super Bowl XXXVI with the New England Patriots.
Irvin has been a linebacker with the Seahawks since 2012 and was a member of last year’s Super Bowl championship squad.
“It was an amazing opportunity to work under players and coaches like that who have won at the highest level,” said Labrecque.
Labrecque is set to enter his junior year at VSS. The 6-foot-1, 220-pound linebacker is built like a house. One of Labrecque’s hobbies away from the gridiron is body building. He can bench 275 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.97 seconds.
“I just really like football. I like playing with aggression and getting to rip someone’s head off,” said Labrecque.
While he is busy trying to take off opponents’ heads, the coaches tried to work on him keeping his own.
“A big thing I took away from the camp was trying to keep your attitude in check and always striving to do better within myself,” said Labrecque.
One quarterback who will have to watch out for Labrecque is Kitzman. The two grew up playing minor football together, but now attend different high schools.
“You gotta watch out for him; he is really aggressive and he flies to the ball,” said Kitzman.
Kitzman is the pivot for the Maroons as he awaits his senior year.
The 6-foot-2, lean quarterback is a huge fan of the New Orleans Saints and Drew Brees.
“They are always looking good. Their offence has so many different looks and different options,” he said.
Not a bad man to idolize, Brees owns a plethora of passing records and has a Super Bowl ring.
Unlike Brees, Kitzman likes to make plays with his feet, throwing on the run and scrambling to pick up a first down.
It is that kind of athleticism that saw him named to the Gridiron Elite Club for being one of the top performers at the camp.
The Gridiron Elite Club will now send Kitzman’s information to more than 2,500 universities and football coaches in North America who hope to land him for next fall.
“Right now I have been in a lot of contact with a lot of division two and three schools so far,” said Kitzman. “I would like to go somewhere in the States, somewhere close like Washington, Oregon or Idaho.”
Labrecque was also recognized, but won’t begin serious talks with schools until Grade 12.
