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BOUNTIFUL — The All-Poly Camp is a big deal these days.
On its website organizers proclaim it to be the “No. 1 non-institutional football camp in America,” and after observing the camp, which was recently held at Bountiful High School, some may find it hard to argue against that claim.
Close to 450 participants took part in the three-day camp where they received instruction from some of the top coaches in the region.
Most of coaches from BYU, Utah and from Utah State were instructors along with coaches from Colorado, Idaho, and Stanford among other places. These coaches joined with top Nike instructors to give the participants an invaluable seminar in preparing themselves for the next level.
“We’ve been able to grow every year since we first started the camp,” said founder Alema Te’o. “It’s a credit to those that come out every year to help out. We treat them well, and I think most of the college coaches, especially the Polynesian coaches, just like meeting up and being around each other at least once a year. It’s sort of like a family reunion for them, and every year, that family has just gotten bigger and bigger.”
Te’o started the camp as a means to help out the community in which he lived. Twelve years ago he was called into a community meeting to explore ways to help motivate the kids in the area to become better students.
With his background as a football coach, Te’o went about writing a proposal to those in charge. His idea was to use his experience as a coach to help promote education through athletics.
“They came back after reading my proposal and told me, ‘you know what? Thanks, but no thanks,’” he said. “They didn’t want to support my idea for whatever reason, but I became passionate about the idea, and decided that I didn’t need help, and that I’d do it myself.”
He made a few calls to some of his coaching colleagues, and the All-Poly Camp was formed, and the early beginnings of the camp are a far cry to where it has become today.
“We began with just 30 or so guys attending and they were all linemen, but you know what? It was a great thing for all of those involved, so we just kept it going.” Te’o said. “Every coach loved being part of it and were more than willing to come back after that first year.”
The following year organizers were able to get more instructors and made the transition from being just a camp for linemen to being a camp for all positions.
“That first year we did that we had just one quarterback, no tight ends, just four running backs, and a lot of linemen,” Te’o said. "It didn’t matter because we made it a great experience, and all the kids had a great experience. It didn’t matter if we had just 30 or so kids there, or the 450 or so kids that we have this year, it’s all about each kid and making sure they have a valuable learning experience.”
While the numbers and specter of the camp have changed over the years, Te’o’s approach hasn’t.
“It’s all about the kids and promoting higher education, and using football as a means to achieve that higher education,” he said. “Every year we have a good number of kids that are able to continue playing football in college, but those that don’t get that opportunity, we do our best to stress to them the importance of being a good citizen in the community and the importance of getting a higher education, even if you don’t get the opportunity to play football after high school.”
To achieve the purpose of promoting the importance of a good education, Te’o schedules academic workshops to go along with the football instruction.
“We divide our workshops into three different areas,” Te’o said. “One of our areas is for life skills where they receive instruction on what college is and how to adjust to it. Our second area is all about NCAA Clearinghouse issues and on how to become eligible for college, and what it takes to become eligible, and finally, we have a cultural aspect.”
Te’o and almost all of his administrators are first-generation Polynesians here in the United States. For that reason, it’s important for them to maintain the unique Polynesian culture and to impart it to others.
“We welcome every kid, regardless of race, but this is still the All-Poly Camp, so our approach is to give the participants a piece of our culture,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if that kid is white, black, brown, yellow, pink or purple, we’re all going to learn a bit of something from the Polynesian culture, so they can feel the great love we have in this community. It‘s all about building a community and bringing kids of all backgrounds together for a common goal.”
With the Utah leg of the All-Poly Camp now concluded, Te’o and his crew will leave for Hawaii for the second leg. After running the camp there, he’ll be leaving for Samoa to help administer the first football camp in that country headed by NFL superstar Troy Polamalu.
For Te’o, who runs an autistic learning center on top of teaching high school, said running these camps will take up his entire summer but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I love to teach, it’s my passion,” he said. “None of this is what I consider work. When you do what you love, and teaching is what I love, then it’s not work. I’m so blessed to have to opportunities to be around such great people as those that help run the All-Poly camp. I wouldn’t want to do anything else with my time, that’s for sure.”
