April 06, 2016
GETTING TO KNOW: JIM CATANZARO, US SPORTS FOOTBALL CAMP DIRECTOR.
Directing the US Sports Contact Football Camp at Lake Forest College is Jim Catanzaro. Coach Catanzaro will be entering his eighth season as Lake Forest College’s head coach, who will also serve as the team’s defensive coordinator for the 10th straight year. Lake Forest has been especially successful on the defensive side of the ball since Catanzaro took over as defensive coordinator in 2006. In addition to ranking among the conference and national leaders in several statistical categories as a team, individual defensive players have tallied 44 all-conference honors in eight seasons. The Foresters earned a team record 11 Academic All-MWC awards in 2009 and have matched that total twice in the last three years. They have amassed 51 such honors in his five seasons as head coach. Catanzaro graduated from Greenville College where he started every game of his career and earned all-conference honors on both sides of the ball. He also handled all the long-snapping duties. The team captured a conference championship his senior season. While at Greenville, Catanzaro also lettered twice in basketball and once in tennis. The Lake Forest College Contact Football Camp is a camper favorite. With top-notch instruction, premier competition, and full contact drills campers leave this top Illinois camp ready to compete at the next level!
GETTING TO KNOW OUR DIRECTORS.
First and Last Name: Jim Catanzaro - Director of US Sports Football Camp
Location(s) you direct: Chicago/Lake Forest, IL
How long have you been coaching football? 16 years
How long have you been directing US Sports Football Camps? 7 years
Why did you start coaching football? I have a passion for the game that never has been quenched.
Favorite Camp Drill or Activity at Camp? The scrimmage on Thursday. Seeing how far kids have come in a short time frame is a testament to their hard work, and the quality of coaching they have received.
What is the key to an incredible camp experience for you? Hard working kids, great facilities, and good weather!
Your perfect camper on Day #1 arrives with what qualities? A desire to be coached. A willingness to try to do things a different way. A great motor!
Which college or pro Coach do you admire and why? Kirk Ferentz (Iowa) and Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern) they are humble and true to themselves. Rather than focusing on JUST schemes, they focus on growing everyone in their program and that they meet. The understand that the people in their program are more important than anything else.
Which college or pro player do you make it a point to watch play? Stanford because they play like we do schematically. In regards to players, I have always loved Peanut Tillman and David Harris. They play with such great fundamentals, and they do the “little things” that make their teams better.
What message would you like parents to understand prior to camp? Your son will not earn their scholarship at this camp, but they will work on skills that will help make them a better overall football player moving forward. The high-quality, collegiate level instruction that they receive is sounds, safe, and with a desire to improve them as players on and off the field.
Coaching Tip:
When we look at developing our players, we look at developing them from the ground up. We start with footwork and stance work every day in our practice. It is critical that we develop the neurological pathways for our repeated pattern movement. Once we work through our pattern movements, we adjust them with a reactionary change of direction. We want players who can react throughout the course of a play quickly, and with confidence. We need our muscle groups to fire together, quickly, so that we can gain an advantage.
I encourage all prospects to create some similar drills. Patterned running with cone placement that they can do each day and can build on. We have several position specific drills that we do each and every day. By doing this as part of our daily warm up, it also triggers “the brain/psyche” that it is TIME to turn up our intensity for practice. There is comfort in the daily drill, but it is a consistent kickoff for what we are doing.
For more information on the camps this summer:
https://www.ussportscamps.com/football/usscfootball/lake-forest-college/