Welcome To Hawg-Tuff!              The site for all your O-Line information..          Join our forum or shoot us an email.          We want to hear from you!!

 

 

Ginger Pope - President /CEO

Coach Mike Pope - Camp Director  

(C) (864) 247-8394 (H) 704-635-7962

   

MAILING ADDRESS

COACH MIKE POPE

HAWG TUFF! OLINE CAMPS

1712 SUE STREET

MONROE, N.C.    28110

 E-mail: hawgtuffcamps@yahoo.com

 

 

WEBMASTER -

Coach George Duncan

 

 

HAWG TUFF FORUM NEW

 

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2010 CAMP DATES

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2010 O-Line Camp Schedule and Drill Description  NEW

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2010 OL-DL Camp Schedule and Drill Description NEW

2009 Hawg-Tuff Lineman Challenge

Event Description

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   YOUTH FOOTBALL WEBSITE   NEW

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How To Be An Offensive Lineman NEW

Understanding Zone Blocking NEW

Offensive Line Skills and Drills NEW

Severe Angle Blocking NEW

Offensive Line Drills NEW

Do's and Don'ts for Pass Blocking NEW

Offensive Line Practice Drill Progression NEW

Zone Blocking Manual NEW

Larry Zerlien Pass Pro Fundamentals NEW

Blocking Twists in Pass Protection NEW

Developing a Leadership Program NEW

Leaders Demonstrate the Following NEW

Pass-Pro Techniques and Skills NEW

Army Offensive Line Manual NEW

Benedictine Flexbone Blocking System  NEW

The Outside Zone NEW

Beight O-Line Drills NEW

Red Marbles NEW

Great Zone Blocking Manual NEW

Vulcan Offensive Manual NEW

10 Qualities of a Successful Coach NEW

Offensive Line Play In The Spread NEW

Coaches Playbook Against Drugs NEW

Offensive Line Drill Checklist NEW

Playing on the Offensive Line NEW

Offensive Line Drills and Thrills  NEW

10 B's Of Excellence  NEW

Calling Your Full Slide Pass Protection  NEW

Protecting the Quarterback  NEW

Wilson HS

Football Program  NEW

Olivet College

Line Blocking Drills   NEW

Coach Tom Osborne

Head of Psychology   NEW

Coach McElvany O-Line Manual  NEW

The O-Line Poem  NEW

O-Line Poem  NEW

Parents and Players Manual NEW

Red Bay HS Strength Manual NEW

Performance Workouts NEW

Zone Blocking Manual NEW

Offensive Line Play/Spread NEW

Offensive Line Grading System  NEW

Sound Pass Protection NEW

BFS Conditioning Program  NEW

Florida Strength Manual  NEW

Jim Ginther Pass Protection Clinic  NEW

Coach Pope's Defensive Clinic Presentation  NEW

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Words Of Wisdom

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McElvany Inside Zone #1

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Boyertown Offensive Manual

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Common coaching Errors

3- Step Slide Protection

Alex Gibbs

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Coaches Manual

Hawg Pride

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What Makes a Good Coach

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7 Rules for New Coaches

Building a Winning Program

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Effective Offensive Linemen

Pass Protection Schemes

Zone Blocking Part I:

Zone Blocking Part II:

Offensive Line Drills

Pass Blocking System

Easy & Efficient

Coach Mike Pope's Biography

Wake Forest Outside Zone

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NCAA Rules

General Colin Powell On Leadership

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HAWG-TUFF VISITORS

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Coach Pope will be coaching at Wingate University this fall!

This is something that he has always wanted to do.  He is very excited about working with Coach Joe Reich and staff!

 

   Wingate university football link

http://sports.wingate.edu/football/default.asp

 

 

 

 

THE MIKE POPE STORY

(CLICK FOR STORY)

 

Celebration of Life Thru Sports Award

(Click for full story)

 

 

 

 

WHAT TO BRING

 

     

   HELMET             CLEATS   

 

BRING TENNIS SHOES IN CASE OF RAIN

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

COACHES RESOURCES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WELCOME TO THE 
HAWG TUFF! EXPERIENCE!

This site was last updated 07/30/10

 

 

Coach inspires players after losing both legs

 

MYRTLE BEACH, SC  – There is more to a Hawg Tuff Offensive Line Camp than run blocking and pass protection.  Coach Mike Pope hosted the camp at Carolina Forest High School on Monday and says he has a bigger message.

 

"He just wants you to know you're very blessed to be a football player," Carolina Forest rising-senior offensive lineman Jagger Turner said.

 

Pope is a 30 year coaching veteran who lost both of his legs to a staph infection five years ago.  He continues running camps around the country and his example inspires players as much as his high-intensity practice methods do.

 

"In football you learn if you're knocked down, dust your pants off and try again," Pope said. The message gets through to players loud and clear. "When you fall down, it's easier to get back up, and that's a good message," Turner said.  "Just have to fall down and get back up." Pope says he hopes overcoming challenges in his life will motivate his players, but he says he does not want them to feel bad for him.  He says he gets to do what he loves every day.

 

"People see a poor old fat guy with no legs, [they think] he has to have the worst life in the world," Pope said.  "I've got the best life in the whole world. I'm the luckiest guy in the whole world." Pope recently had a book written about him called "Do They Play Football in Heaven." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to welcome you to this site. On this site you will find a message forum board and a lot of really great O-line coaching and motivational materials. We will be adding to these as the year goes by.


We are excited about the plans for the 2010 Hawg Tuff O-line Camps this year as well as our Hawg Tuff Linemen Challenges. We will be setting up the Hawg Tuff Line Camps, Hawg Tuff Linemen Challenges and Youth Camps in several states this upcoming year so check back often for more details. You can view information about all of these by clicking on the tabs to the left of the webpage.

We should have the complete list of camps and challenges up by March  1, 2010.

 

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I have some great news!  The South Carolina Football Coaches Association is sponsoring a book about my life and career.  Wilt Browning, a very respected sportswriter and author is writing the book.  It will be entitled – “DO THEY PLAY FOOTBALL IN HEAVEN?  It is going to be a great read for coaches, players and fans of our great game.   You can click on the picture below to see the flyer and order form for the book.  The coaches association is offering a special pre-publishing price for the book.   This book will not only present my life and career as a coach for 37 years but also a lot of South Carolina High School football history.  I am very excited

 

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If you would like
to order the book Click Here

The book is $20.00 which includes shipping

“Do They Play Football in Heaven?” written by Wilt Browning is one of the truly inspirational sports books in an era in which athletes and coaches frequently make headlines for reasons other than wins and losses. Mike’s philosophy of God, family, and football is shared in this biography which shows how God works in our everyday lives.

 

Mike Pope is a mountain of a man who has coached most sports played at the high school level through more than 35 seasons, though football has always been his first love athletically. And now without his own legs, with the use of prostheses, Mike is entering his second season as a college coach, albeit a volunteer one. One will find him working with offensive linemen at Wingate University located very near his Monroe, N.C., hometown.

 

In all those years, Mike has won and he has lost, he has been hired and he has been fired. And he has suffered through a series of medical crises so grim that at one point a family member recommended making funeral arrangements. Still, Mike coaches on.

A few years ago, Mike was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, a condition that called for a life-saving quadruple bypass heart operation. Then in March 2005, more heart problems developed and surgeons implanted a pacemaker to attend to the rhythm of Mike’s heart. But instead of giving him the worry-free days for which it was intended, the procedure almost cost Mike his life. While recovering from the trauma of the surgery, he developed an infection, and the source of the infection turned out to be the dread MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus).

 

MRSA cost Mike both legs below the knees. But the infection did not take away the heart of a coach or his spirit.

 

This will be Mike Pope’s story. It will include the laughter and the tears that come with life for a coach. Mostly, the book will deal with the triumphs his life represents. There have been many, and not nearly all of them were announced in scoreboard lights. More than 14,000 boys and one girl have attended the “Hawg Tuff” camps for offensive linemen that Mike has been holding every year in many states in the South, Southwest and Midwest. Countless numbers of high school athletes have called him “Coach” at a half dozen school where Mike has walked the sidelines. The readers of “Do They Play Football in Heaven?” will hear from many of the athletes like Troy Brown of the New England Patriots, whose lives the Popes have touched, and from coaches with whom and against whom he has worked.

 

This book is a great read for people of all ages, as the Pope family shares their story of what God can do in your life and how you can affect so many people around you.

 

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Rather than give in to illness, football coach helps strengthen players

 

7-13-09

COLUMBIA, SC - Mike Pope could've quit coaching a few years ago when he suffered a personal tragedy. Most people would. Instead, the longtime South Carolina coach travels around the country helping football's unsung heroes --the lineman -- all for the love of the game. Pope loves football grunts.

"Lineman are special," he said. "They're like the forgotten child. We just need to do all we can do to build them up." So for the past 20 years, this former offensive lineman has been holding inexpensive camps for kids as far away as Texas. They're called Hog Tuff.  "I'm the boss hog," he says. During camps like the one this week, players run home-grown drills with rodeo-like names like root hawg and bull pull. The tire flip requires plenty of strength.  "It's hard," said one player. And it's their fun that drives Pope. Four years ago, he lost his legs after getting a staph infection in the hospital. "For six months it was eating me up," he said. But getting back on the field motivated him.

"God decided he wasn't going to take me four years ago," said Pope. "For whatever reason, he's going to let me stay and I hope he lets me stay longer. There's lots of things I want to do."

 

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Joe DeLamielleure – legendary Pro Hall of Fame offensive guard has joined in with Coach Mike Pope and will be coaching at some of the HAWG TUFF! OLINE CAMPS this year.   Joe brings an immense love for the game, some superior o-line skills and unique strength and conditioning methods to the camp experience.

COME VISIT JOE D’S HAWG TUFF! PAGE AND LEARN ABOUT A LEGEND!

CLICK FOR JOE'S PAGE

 

 

 

 

 

 


HAWG TUFF! OLINE CAMPS

PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME

CANTON, OHIO

 

JUNE 28, 2010

 

PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME HAWG TUFF! OLINE CAMP COACHING STAFF

 

 

 

 

 


 

2010 East Jackson Linemen Challenge

 

 

 

 

 

2010 Wingate Camp

 

 

2010 Trinity Camp

 

 

 

 

 

          LINEMAN CHALLENGE

   

     TUG OF WAR

 

 

2009 DESCRIPTION OF LINEMAN CHALLENGE EVENTS

PLEASE CLICK

 


 

Linemen come together at Walhalla

 

Click on photo to enlarge
Daniel High School linemen, from left, Richard Miller, Cody Thurlow and Matthew Craig pull the rope during the tug-of-war competition at the Hawg-Tuff Lineman Challenge on Friday in Walhalla.
 
 

Daniel High School linemen, from left, Richard Miller, Cody Thurlow and Matthew Craig pull the rope during the tug-of-war competition at the Hawg-Tuff Lineman Challenge on Friday in Walhalla.
 

WALHALLA — Sure, there isn’t much from the Hawg-Tuff Lineman Challenge that is going to directly translate to the gridiron when it counts on Friday nights.

But according to all parties involved in the matter, that’s really not what’s important.

On the other hand, they’ll point out it’s the indirect things, like confidence, camaraderie and a sense of teamwork, which were all stressed on Friday in Walhalla, that can pay huge dividends when the lights come on in the fall.

With that in mind, linemen from 10 different schools traveled to Walhalla for the competition on Friday afternoon, including local notables Daniel, Seneca and West-Oak in addition to the Razorbacks, with Blue Ridge ultimately taking the title after competing in 10 events, which ranged from the bench press to a tug of war.

Daniel and Seneca, which both brought enough players to form two squads, saw their top units finish tied for second place with 84 points, though the Lions officially took second in a tiebreaker.

But in the end, it wasn’t the final rankings anyone was truly concerned about, as Friday was all about having a good time and building bonds.

“It’s just fun to watch them go out there and compete,” Walhalla head coach John Boggs said. “I thought it was a lot of fun, and I’d rather do this than seven-on-sevens any day.”

Seneca’s Casey Baldwin, who captured top honors in the bench press while finishing second in the bull pull, said the same thing, as he said he enjoyed his second straight year of taking part in the competition.

“It’s an overall combination of speed, strength, agility and endurance, and it’s just a really good time out here,” Baldwin said. “It’s a pretty good experience, and we just came out to have a good time and get better as a unit.”

And with the prevalence of summer passing leagues for the skill position players getting the limelight, Seneca head coach Ron Duncan said opportunities like the Hawg-Tuff competition are a good way to give the guys in the trenches a good time.

“It’s something good to get those big guys competing,” Duncan said. “We do a lot of passing leagues in the summer, and this is something really good for our linemen to compete with and it went really well.”

And while it may not be the biggest thing, Duncan said he was able to see some noted improvement compared to the Bobcats’ showing from last year, as his second squad captured a fourth-place finish this year.

“We can kind of judge our program on how we did last year compared to this year, and strength-wise the speed and agility of our linemen kind of shows we’re making progress,” Duncan added.

On that note, there was no move for Daniel in the standings this year, as the Lions finished in second place for the second time in as many years.

However, Lions offensive line coach Jamie Wilson said he noticed a big change in his group this time around.

“These guys are tighter together than any guys we’ve got,” Wilson said. “Last year our wide receivers were really together, and our linemen weren’t, but it’s not like that this year.”

Instead, Wilson said both his offensive line and the team as a whole are growing close, as many of the Lions’ skill players even came out early in the day to cheer on their teammates.

“They didn’t have to come over here,” Wilson said. “This is team building, and I’m happy with the effort we showed today.”

And that is really what the Hawg-Tuff Lineman Challenge is all about.

Hawg-Tuff Lineman Challenge team results

1. Blue Ridge 95

2. Daniel (1) 84 (tiebreaker)

3. Seneca (1) 84

4. Seneca (2) 79

5. McCormick 59

6. Walhalla 55

7. Wren 49

8. West-Oak 46

9. Daniel (2) 39

10. Dixie 33

11. Crescent 31

12. Woodmont 20

 


 

 

THE HAWG-TUFF CAMP IS APPROVED BY THE
SOUTH CAROLINA HIGH SCHOOL

LEAGUE    

 

CAMP SCHEDULE

 

8:00 - 9:00

Registration

9:00 - 9:30

Welcome and Lecture

9:30 - 12:00

Run / Pass Instruction

12:00 - 12:45

Lunch

 

12:45 - 1:00

Lecture

1:00 - 3:30

Run / Pass Instruction

3:30 - 4:00

Academic Emphasis

 

 

SAT PREP

 

 

College Recruiting

 

 

End Camp!

 

 

     


 

Hawg Tuff Summer Tour 2010

 

 

 

 

 


NEWS

 

 

 


 

How it all got started....

Twenty  years ago, Coach Mike Pope began the Hawg Tuff! Camps out of a desire to provide quality instruction to offensive linemen at a fraction of the cost of big camps where kids were paying high prices but not getting their money's worth. The first camp was held at Indian Land High School (SC) where 40 young men attended. Since that time, camps have been added and attendance at the camps has grown.   We will be having over 25 camps or challenges this year.

 

Young men have attended the Hawg Tuff! camps from South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio and Georgia in the past few years and now Hawg Tuff! will be going into Texas, Virginia, New Jersey,  Pennsylvania, Maryland  and Tennessee this year. . Some of these campers have gone on to play at the collegiate and professional level. All of them improved their skills and made themselves better high school players and an asset to their respective teams.

The success of these camps has always been the result of the excellent coaches involved. They are all dedicated, hard working, and enthusiastic with a vast knowledge about offensive line play and technique. Some of the great coaches that have been involved in the camp over the years are Allen Sitterle, Bucky Tillotson, Ernie Hughes, Emet Reyes, Danny Sawyer, Marty Williams, Carl Startsman, Scott Steen, Mark Holiday, Brian Strickland, John Boggs, Mike Martin, Hal Brown, Mark Dempsey, David Pierce, Tom Turner, Bernie Keubler, Duane Garrick, Jim Anderson, Steve Gabriel, Derek Ayers, Brice Nelson, Andrew Heady, Dan Dickerson, Dain Clark, Caleb King and many others.

 

THE GOAL OF HAWG TUFF!

It is the goal of Hawg Tuff Camps to offer a fun, inexpensive, well- organized and high quality learning experience for any young man who is a rising 7th grader through rising high school senior. Campers are divided into three groups - middle school, junior varsity, and varsity. All groups receive instruction in run and pass fundamentals and technique.

 

In addition to seven hours of outstanding instruction, all campers receive a free T-Shirt and lunch. The Cost of the Camp is only $50.00 if pre-registered and $60.00 the day of camp in South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina. In all other states the cost of the camp is $60.00 if pre-registered and $70.00 the day of camp. CAMPERS MAY PRE-REGISTER ON LINE  USING PAYPAL AT:

 

www.hawgtuff.net

 

OR PRE-REGISTER WITH THEIR SCHOOL’S COACHES USING THE FORM PROVIDED TO ALL PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS.

 

HOPE TO SEE YOU AT ONE OF THE CAMPS OR CHALLENGES THIS YEAR!