The National Football Academies’ mission statement motto is “coaching football, building men,” and when their National Football Camp comes to Marcus High School in late March, the organization hopes to do just that.
Flower Mound resident Rusty DiNicola is one of the regional director’s for the NFA and said he believes the camps are different from others for a couple of reasons.
“The passing mechanics that we use are called C4,” DiNicola said, which stands for Confidence, Consistency, Character, and Commitment.
“The C4 passing mechanics are becoming standard throughout the country. We’re about all aspects of quarterback play, so it’s not just passing mechanics; it’s also run game mechanics.
“We also have something called R4, which actually gives quarterbacks accelerators, which helps them understand where defenses weaknesses are.”
DiNicola said that the organization also has a unique coach certification process, in which the biomechanics of the quarterback position have been broken down and put together in a series of drills used to install them.
“If you can break it down for an athlete and show them how to throw with the proper mechanics, at the same time, you can break it down to a coach,” DiNicola said. “One of the things that makes this really unique is that there are hundreds of coaches around the united states that are certified in our C4 passing schemes.”
National Football Academies was started 24 years ago by Darren Slack, a former quarterback at the University of Central Florida.
DiNicola said that there are about 80 camps a year, which also include regional camps, which DiNicola hosts in the Metroplex, Austin, Texarkana, Tyler-Longview area and other areas. The camps are targeted for athletes between the ages of 8 through college.
“The reason that I got involved with the regional camps is that the national camps can only hit the bigger cities for the most part,” DiNicola said. “I want to make sure that the kids in Texarkana and Tyler have the same opportunity to learn the things that the kids in Dallas do.”
DiNicola said a number of area coaches use the NFA system and said some of the success stories that have trained with the NFA include 37 current Division I college quarterbacks, and Green Bay Packers backup QB Matt Flynn, who has also trained with the NFA certified coaches.
“Our biggest thing you’ll hear us say is ‘coaching football, building men,’” DiNicola said. “Football will end for everyone, even for Brett Favre, we think. But being a man will never stop.
“We really focus on using football to emulate the behaviors of a man…and we try to tie lessons from football into what it takes to be a man.”
Visit www.nfa-texas.com to sign up for the National Football Academies Camp that runs March 23-25 at Marcus High School in Flower Mound.
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