University of Richmond Athletics
Spider InSight: Premiere Edition
08/03/2016 | Football, General, Men's Basketball
Hi everyone, and welcome to Spider InSight, a new, regular feature on RichmondSpiders.com that will give you my perspective from the broadcast booth and press row with notes, quotes and anecdotes about Spider Athletics. In today's premiere edition, we're off to summer camp.
REDSKINS CAMP WITH CLINT SINTIM
It would be a stretch to say the Spiders had taken over Redskins Training Camp in Richmond, but they did make their presence felt.
For the fourth consecutive year, a Richmond football assistant worked alongside Redskins' coaches and players as part of the Bill Walsh Minority Fellowship program. Second year assistant coach Clint Sintim spent the first week of training camp with the NFC East champions – from the team hotel, to the meeting rooms, to the practice fields. 
“It's been a great opportunity to learn football at the highest level and to get out here and learn from these coaches and players,” said Sintim. It wasn't that long ago that he was on an NFL field as player. Sintim was a second round pick of the New York Giants in 2009 and was on their Super Bowl championship team in 2011. Two ACL knee injuries prematurely cut short his promising NFL career.
“It's bittersweet,” said Sintim. “At times I get flashbacks to my playing days. I'm still hanging out with the guys, talking to them a little bit. At the same time, I understand that I'm at a different point in my life and trying to better myself as a coach.”
Spider head coach Danny Rocco believes that's what's happening to the former Virginia All-ACC linebacker – and faster than he thinks. “Clint's one of those guys who's really hard on himself – really critical of where he's at,” said Rocco while attending Tuesday's Redskins camp with his Richmond staff. “He's always asking 'how can I get better? What do I need to do?' And I said, 'the first thing you're going to learn when you get to Redskins camp is you're a lot further along that you think you are.' I think I really caught him off guard with that. I told him, 'you're going to find out you have the intelligence and the aptitude to communicate at a very high level. All you need is the experience and the time.' I'm hopeful he comes out of here with confidence and a renewed energy about where he's at. And maybe he's not as far away from where he wants to go as he thinks he is.”
He's not that far removed from where he was as a player. Standing on the practice field in a white, long sleeve Redskins t-shirt and burgundy shorts, Sintim could easily be identified as a player. Only his ever-present pencil lodged between his Redskins visor and his ear gives away his status as a coach. Current Redskin defensive back Will Blackmon was his teammate with the New York Giants.
“I'd be lying to say I wouldn't like to still be playing the game. But there could be far worse things happening to me. I think I have a bright future hopefully if I continue to do the things I'm doing.”
And his NFL career wasn't without its highlights. One in particular that any Redskin fan would cheer was a quarterback sack. But not just of any signal caller. This was a game against the rival Dallas Cowboys and the quarterback was Tony Romo.
“I ended up making a play, and it was a great moment in my career,” remembered Sintim. “It's something that I'll cherish and something that I'll be able to tell my kids about someday.”
And what will he tell the current group of college kids that he'll begin coaching Thursday when he returns to his Spider football family? “It's a blessing to play the game of football. If you watch the way some of these guys carry themselves – guys like (Ryan) Kerrigan – he's a professional in the way he comes out and practices, how he prepares himself, how he takes care of his body. Those are some of the things I saw and hopefully I can tell our guys that and they'll be receptive to it and we can be better Spiders this year.”
SPIDER STAFF AT CAMP
Again this year, Coach Rocco and his staff spent a day at Redskins camp. This year it came with a twist that created an amusing scenario. The Spiders' new offensive coordinator is John Garrett, brother of Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett. The Spiders asked the Redskins if it was alright for John to attend camp and both head coach Jay Gruden and team president Bruce Allen, a Spider Hall of Famer, gave their blessings.
Monday after practice, I ran into Allen as he was beginning his daily walk to the team hotel down Broad Street. Allen laughed at the notion. “I appreciate them asking, but there's no problem with John coming to camp. We're not going to be giving away any trade secrets at this point. He's more than welcome to take a look.”
Or, as head coach Jay Gruden told JP Finlay of csnmidatlantic.com, “What happens here, stays here. Jason and the Garrett family I know pretty well. They do things the right way. I have a lot of respect for the Garrett family."
Besides, as Finlay and others pointed out, there are hundreds of spectators watching practice at every NFL training camp every day. There aren't many secrets revealed this time of year.
In fact, Garrett and the staff picked the perfect day to attend camp. Former Spider wide receiver Reggie Diggs, who had been nursing a knee injury, was activated from the physically unable to perform (PUP) list and participated in drills for the first time, wearing jersey number 17. Diggs is the second Spider in Redskins training camp in Richmond, following defensive back Justin Rogers, who was with Washington last summer.
SPIDER SPEAK
Junior quarterback Kyle Lauletta on being named CAA Preseason Offensive Player of the Year:
“It's definitely an honor and a privilege. This is the best conference in the FCS. To have these coaches think that I'm worthy of an award like that is really an honor. There's so many great players. There's even a guy on our own team that might have been even more deserving than me in Brian Brown. I just want to prove this year that I can be even better than I was last year. Last year was just the beginning and I want to put in an even better 2016 campaign than I did last season.”
Freshman men's basketball guard Nick Sherod, asked his early impressions of the difference between high school and college basketball:
“I definitely don't get to take as many shots in college,” he laughed. “I was pretty nervous my first practice, to be honest. This is something I've been dreaming about since I was a little kid.”
Senior men's basketball forward T.J. Cline on the favorite part of his whirlwind summer basketball tour that took him to Dallas, Sacramento, Phoenix, Las Vegas (where he interned at the NBA Summer League) and finally Los Angeles for the elite Nike Skills Academy:
“Definitely the Nike Skills Academy. When you're sitting down after a hard workout and you've got these unbelievable coaches and you get to have a film session with Julius Randle the first day, Anthony Davis the next day, and then LeBron James! I sit there and it's like I can't believe we're running through the Finals game film with LeBron James. That was by far the coolest thing I did. You're just sitting there taking notes and soaking it all in. What an experience.”
NEXT TIME: A behind-the-scenes preview of my September University of Richmond Magazine and RichmondSpiders.com all-access story on Spider Hall of Famer Ken Atkinson, the new rookie head coach of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets. I'll let you in on a conversation that didn't make the article with a Nets' player who told us about another Richmond connection in Brooklyn. Read all about it only in the next edition of Spider InSight!
