CLEMSON — It’s common knowledge that college coaches don’t have much of an off-season and stay busy year-round, but at least some of the time, they’re giving back to the community and having a little fun doing it.

And as they do every summer, the Clemson football coaching staff will help coordinate the 2008 Tommy Bowden Football Camps, which will begin next Saturday and conclude on June 13.

The first camps of the summer will be the Youth Camps for students who will be in grades 2-7 next school year, and campers that will have the choice of attending one of a pair of two-day sessions, which are independent of one another.

The High School Camp sessions will begin on June 8 for students who will be in grades 8-12, and similar to the youth camp, will be held in a pair of sessions that will last three days each, which are also independent of each other.

The Clemson staff will be joined by select high school and college coaches for the four camps, which Tigers assistant head coach and wide receivers coach Dabo Swinney said are always an enjoyable, but busy, time for the coaching staff.

“It gives us an opportunity to really work with the young kids and work on fundamentals and techniques,” he said. “It’s also a great opportunity for us to start establishing relationships with kids and high school coaches that come and work the camp with us.”

In recent years, the camps have attracted more than 1,000 campers from across the country each summer to the Clemson University campus, and the coach-to-camper ratio is usually about 10-to-1, although it could be even closer this year.

And the camps for youths and high school students differ greatly, as Swinney said the young groups are given a broad introduction to the sport.

“A lot of those kids, you don’t know how they’re going to develop and what they’re going to end up being, so we try to have an offensive and defensive emphasis as we go through the camp,” he said.

And at the same rate, the high school camps are more specified, as most players entering the camp know their positions for the most part.

In some cases, players are offered scholarships coming straight out of the camp, as was the case with Tyler Grisham, who is currently a starting wide receiver for the Tigers.

“It’s a great opportunity for them and for us as coaches, because some of these kids that are coming to camp have the opportunity to work with us one and one, and there are a lot of kids in the past we have signed right out of our camp,” Swinney said.

But of course, the biggest objective for the Clemson staff is to help give back to the community, showing the campers a thing or two about the game and, of course, having fun.

“The biggest thing is teaching the game of football and developing relationships with these kids at a young age,” Swinney said.

“It’s a lot of fun for us, and we get as much out of it hopefully as they do.”

2008 Tommy Bowden Football Camp

What: Four instructional camps for youths at the Clemson football practice fields, with resident campers staying in student dormitories on the Clemson University campus.

Youth Camp

For: Grades 2-7 for the 2008-2009 school year

Cost: $185 resident

$155 evening commuter

$135 commuter

Session 1: May 31- June 1

Session 2: June 6-7

High School Camp

For: Grades 8-12 for the 2008-2009 school year

Cost: $285 resident

$225 commuter

Session 1: June 8-10

Session 2: June 11-13

For additional information, contact Jill Wilks

Phone: 864-656-1910

E-mail: jillana@clemson.edu