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Ginger Pope - President /CEO Coach Mike Pope - Camp Director (C) (864) 247-8394 (H) 704-635-7962
MAILING ADDRESS COACH MIKE POPE HAWG TUFF O-LINE CAMPS 1712 SUE STREET MONROE, N.C. 28110 E-mail: hawgtuffcamps@yahoo.com
WEBMASTER Coach George Duncan
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This site was last updated 01/22/12
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE
2010 WINGATE BULLDOG
FOOTBALL TEAM!
2010 SOUTH ATLANTIC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP! FIRST SAC CHAMPIONSHIP IN WINGATE HISTORY FIRST 9 WIN SEASON IN WINGATE HISTORY 9-3 FIRST D2 NCAA PLAYOFF BERTH FIRST WIN IN D2 NCAA PLAYOFFS
WINGATE FOOTBALL, THIS IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT.............
WINGATE FOOTBALL 2010 HIGHLIGHT
WINGATE FOOTBALL HIGHLIGHT 08-09
WINGATE FOOTBALL RECRUITING HIGHLIGHT
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.
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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 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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“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 is a tremendous supporter of Coach Mike Pope and the Hawg Tuff! Experience. 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!
THE HAWG-TUFF CAMP IS APPROVED BY THE
LEAGUE
CAMP SCHEDULE
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.
It is the goal of Hawg Tuff! Camps and Challenges LLC. to offer a fun, inexpensive, well- organized and high quality learning experience for any young person who is a rising 5th grader through rising high school senior. Campers are divided into three groups – youth/middle school, junior varsity, and varsity. All groups receive instruction in run and pass fundamentals and technique.
In addition to six and one half hours of outstanding instruction, all campers receive a T-Shirt and lunch and a copy of Coach Mike Pope’s biography DO THEY PLAY FOOTBALL IN HEAVEN?. The Cost of the OL OR DL CAMPS is only $60.00 in South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina. In all other states the cost of the camps is $70.00. The cost of the ALL – SKILL POSITION CAMPS which cover all defensive and offensive skill positions is $50.00 in all states and the QB-RECEIVER CAMPS are $50.00 in all states. The HAWG TUFF! YOUTH CAMPS are $50.00 in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia and $60.00 in all other states. LINEMEN CHALLENGES ARE $300 for an eleven – man team in all states . CAMPERS MAY PRE-REGISTER ON LINE USING PAYPAL AT:
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!
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