A day for future Knights at St. Francis High football camp

Former players now enjoying scholarship collegiate careers in wide receiver/safety Travis Talianko (2011, San Jose State) and running back/safety Dietrich Riley (2010, UCLA) made special visits back to extol the virtues of their alma mater.

"This place means a lot to me," Riley told the assembly at the close of Tuesday's session. "[St. Francis] taught me about being disciplined and focusing on my main priorities."

Bonds had his entire varsity and junior varsity coaching staff on the field running drills and clinics. And over a half-dozen of the returning players from last year's team that advanced to the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Western Division playoffs, including Jared Lebowitz, Trevor Provencio, Joey Velladao, Matt Kubly and Gordon Grbavac, guided the campers through each activity.

"I think the kids like them better [than the coaches], the kids gravitate to the players because they're younger," Bonds said. "It's been a big hit having them out here."

Matt Elser, 13, of Santa Clarita, said the high school players helped him and his fellow campers better absorb the lessons from the coaching staff.

"It helps us think better because they help us through it," Elser said. "If we don't understand anything they come up and talk to us."

Over the course of the camp, players learned technique and proper form and preparation for playing skill positions, as well as on offensive and defensive lines, and used their knowledge in non-contact simulations that resembled passing league scrimmages.

"The skill level is all across the spectrum, so we're just trying to teach them basic fundamentals of football," Bonds said. "[We] teach them how we do things at St. Francis, about the way we run our football program and what it's about, so maybe it makes an impression on them and they can take something back to their Pop Warner team or their Junior All-American team and use it for their upcoming football season."