Camps Inspire Bonding

Weights clank to the floor in tune with grunts and smack talk on a balmy Wednesday evening.

The summer heat creeps into the orange-and-blue weight room and the sticky aroma of sweat begins to fill the air.

Motivational posters line the wall of the Cape Coral High School facility. Varsity football players bond, ribbing and encouraging each other to push harder, lift more.

These players have been in the weight room since mid-June, working on getting ready for the first game, a home game Aug. 26 against Palmetto Ridge. Freshmen and junior varsity players have the morning shift while varsity work in the evening.

"We're bonding together as a team, working hard together," said Kyle Young, a senior center whose been on the varsity team for three years.

Young said they alternate days between upper body and lower body and generally work for an hour and a half each day.

Trey Daniels, a junior cornerback and linebacker, hopes the team will go far this season.

"(We're) trying to go to states and go undefeated, 10 and 0," Daniels said.

Coach Brad Metheny said he gave the team a break after school ended but now they're working hard in the weight room.

"(We) try to build that team camaraderie and gain strength to carry over to the performance on the field on game day," Metheny said.

Young and Daniels will be key players for the Seahawks this year, Metheny said.

Across the school in the band room on an early Tuesday morning, the competition marching band members trickle in.

Thirty-four students geared up for the second day of band camp with water bottles and sheet music. A light smell of sunscreen permeated the room. The band is working on its opening number.

Most of these teens are entering their second week of band camp. Cape Coral High is having two marching bands this year, a competition and a show band.

Stacey Green, Cape High's second-year band director, said the different bands are new this year and the competition band requires a lot more dedication. The members practice long hours to perfect their halftime show.

Ben Wiener, a sophomore tuba player, likes the new system.

"This year, we're doing a lot of things different and it seems to be working," Wiener said.

With two weeks of band camp on top of a short summer, Napoleon Galang, a sophomore alto sax player, said band camp has been hard but at the same time fun because you can see all your friends again.

The competition band practices from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. during band camp, while the week prior the show band stopped at 5 p.m.

Green said the competition band's show this year is on the chaos theory and the butterfly effect. Band members will mimic molecules pulling back and forth through formations on the football field.

She said this band will travel to competitions throughout the state, and its halftime show will be used for away games. The show band's tribute to Bill Chase, a jazz musician, will play to the home crowds.

Island Coast High School's 16-member band was also working on its halftime show on a recent Tuesday.

Patrick Gray, a senior tuba player, joked that they were the smallest band in Florida. He said he likes marching band because he likes to work with others to accomplish something.

"The smaller the band the harder we have to work," Gray said.

The Gator band's show will have a Latin feel. During the school year, the band practices three times a week in the afternoons.

Band director Kenneth Trapp said it's hard to have a full sound with a small band, but the group has done well in competitions. This is Island Coast's third year with a marching band.

"If you're tiny like that you can't do the same show that a big band does," Trapp said.