O-D Alumni making waves at the Combine!

We'd like to congratulate 15 of our O-D Bowl alumni who will be showing off their skills for the NFL and the world at large at the 2013 NFL Combine!

From our 2008 Bowl, Cal corner Marc Anthony, UCLA corner Aaron Hester, Arizona QB Matt Scott, Oklahoma State kicker Quinn Sharp, and Virginia Tech 'backer Bruce Taylor will all be on hand. 

Our 2009 game is extremely well-represented as West Virginia wideouts Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey will be on the field in addition to the man throwing to them - QB Geno Smith. Smith and Austin have even been named among the 10 most intriguing athletes at the Combine by CBSSports! Rounding out the 2009 Bowlers will be Ohio State tackle Reid Fragel, Georgia DT Kwame Geathers, Auburn tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen, Florida State FB Lonnie Pryor, and Georgia Tech corner Rod Sweeting.

Finally, the Bowlers from the 2010 game participating in the 2013 Combine are a pair of receivers - Clemson's DeAndre Hopkins and Oklahoma's Kenny Stills.

Congratulations once again are in order for these fine athletes and fellow O-D Family Members! We hope you join us in cheering them on as they look to improve their stock for the upcoming NFL Draft!

National defeats American behind strong secondary play

Houston, TX (Dec 30)- The 7th Annual Offense-Defense All-American Bowl was nothing short of exciting as the National Conference defeated the American Conference 20-9 in Houston, Texas at Reliant Stadium, home of the Houston Texans.

The National Conference won the 7th annual Offense-Defense All-American Bowl behind a strong defensive effort led by a back seven that picked off four American passes.

The National team was led by O-D Bowl Game MVP quarterback Trent Hosick from Staley High School in Missouri (committed to Missouri) as was responsible for two touchdowns in the 20-9 victory for head coach Larry Brown.

Hosick scored on his team’s first offensive play with a 67-yard touchdown on an option keeper to give the National Conference a 7-0 lead. Later in the first half he hit a 70-yard scoring strike to wide receiver Dominic Walker (committed to Nebraska during game) to give them a 14-0 lead with 9:36 left in the first half.

The American Conference finally got on the board with 7:19 left in the third quarter as QB Zach Allen from Temple High School in Texas (committed to Syracuse) hit uncommitted tight end Mitch Parsons in the endzone for a 7-yard scoring strike to cut the National lead to 14-7.

The National Conference thwarted an American Conference drive with an interception returned 32 yards down to the American two-yard line by Florida State commitment linebacker Do’Derrick Hoskins.

The National Conference then scored on a tw0-yard touchdown run by Denham Springs High School running back Kaleb Blanchard (undecided) to give them a 20-9 lead as the extra-point attempt failed with 7:26 left in the game.

A comeback fell shorter as the American Conference was only able to put two more points on the board after a safety by linebacker Shane Jones (committed to Michigan State) capped the scoring of the game with 4:23 left in the fourth quarter.

The National Conference then held the American Conference scoreless the rest of the game to win by a final score of 20-9.

“This was another proud day for Offense-Defense Sports with a tremendous amount of talent and great coaching, “said Offense-Defense President Rick Whittier, “We are already looking forward to a great game in 2014 and another strong year of seeing bowl alumni take their talents to the NFL.”

The Offense-Defense All-American Bowl is part of the largest Youth All-American Event in the country known as Offense-Defense Bowl Week, a series of events taking place during the last week of the year that culminates in the All-American Bowl. The game has in the past seen the on-field talents of a wide array of football stardom including Dez Bryant, Earl Thomas, Cameron Newton, David DeCastro, Cordy Glenn, Stephen Hill, Brandon Boykin, Carlos Dunlap, Derek Sherrod, Golden Tate, Rolando McClain, and Joe Haden among many others. The O-D Bowl led all high school All-America games with nine players selected to the 2012 Senior Bowl and former O-D Bowl participant Cameron Newton was the No. 1 overall pick by the Carolina Panthers in the 2011 NFL Draft, named to the Pro Bowl, and was named the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2011 while Earl Thomas was selected to his second straight Pro Bowl in 2013.

The National Conference was led by head coach Larry Brown, a former Super Bowl MVP for the Dallas Cowboys and the American Conference was led by former Cowboys Pro Bowl safety Bill Bates.

During the game several players committed to programs on national television as WR Dominic Walker committed to Nebraska, CB Dashon Hunt committed to Oregon State, DT Derrick Calloway committed to Louisville, and LB Jeremy Benjamin committed to Marshall.

For the second straight year the Offense-Defense Bowl took place in Texas after playing in Dallas at Cowboys Stadium last year

The Houston Texans front office was in attendance as a member of the personnel department watched from a suite and the sidelines before leaving in the third quarter. It’s believed this is the first time in the history of high school All-American games that at least one NFL team had officially been credentialed to evaluate potential future NFL prospects.

This was also the first time in the history of high school All-American games that a game went away from traditional east/west or north/south formats and put players on the same teams from all over the country.

Another first-time in the history of high school All-American games was the Offense-Defense Bowl Draft Special that took place on December 26th as rosters were announced. No game has ever had a draft to divide up the talent.

GAME MVPS
OVERALL MVP: QB Trent Hosick, Staley HS, MO (Missouri)
NATIONAL OFFENSE: RB Kaleb Blanchard, Denham Springs HS, LA (Undecided)
NATIONAL DEFENSE: CB Ranthony Texada II, Frisco Centennial HS, TX (TCU)
AMERICAN OFFENSE: TE Mitch Parsons, Chaparral HS, CO (Undecided)
AMERICAN DEFENSE: DE David Kenney, Pike HS, IN (Indiana)

2013 O-D Camp Preview!

Right now everyone here at O-D is busy fine-tuning the nuts and bolts of the upcoming All-American Bowl Week. That being said, we've also spent some time with our coaches going over the 2012 Camps and how we can improve and progress on our already top-notch camp experience. The new stuff you can expect to see at camp in 2013 include:

• Expanded video instruction: Our on-field video review kicked off with a bang in 2012 and it will return for 2013 in an expanded role. Better angles, more analysis...you name it, we're improving it!
 
• One dedicated position per player: Past years we've had our athletes select an offensive and defensive position to receive split instruction at during camp. In 2013, our campers will be selecting a single position to receive exclusive training in. The benefits of this change are multifaceted - athletes will enjoy better matchups at camp, we'll be able to hire more positionally-focused coaches, and in an increasingly specialized game, athletes will be getting TWICE as much instruction at their best position.

• Better and more focused evaluations: Our end-of-camp evaluations have always been important instructional tools for our campers. Now, they're growing into something even better - Youth athletes will be getting evaluations better-geared for their age group, telling them what they specifically need to improve as they begin entering the high school tier of play and high school-aged players will receive awesome tips and pointers to specifically prepare them for the collegiate game.
 
• Limited spots at camp: That's right! Much like how the limited slots available for our Bowl Game increases quality of play and coaching, so too does limited space work at our camps. Better scrimmages, practice matchups, player-to-coach ratios, end-of-camp bowl games...the fact is, the quality of the camp takes a huge leap when we enforce limits on camp size. Another bonus? This element makes it way easier for our coaches to analyze and scout athletes for possible All-American Bowl inclusion. Win-win!

 

The road to being an All-American

 

Football Academy (footballacademy.com) - O-D has approximately 30 Football Academy events scheduled throughout the winter and spring all across the country! The Academy is a 3-day non-contact camp for athletes in grades 6 through 12, split into two divisions (6th-8th grade, 9th-12th). Athletes will participates in combines, 7-on-7s film review, and both on-and-off the field instruction designed to improve athletes ability to impress and test well in combine-style events. This event also increases player visibility for All-American Bowl consideration.

Summer Camp (o-d.com) - Now halfway through its 5th decade of operation, the O-D Summer Camps are the backbone and bread-and-butter of the Offense-Defense experience! With 4-day, full-contact camps in almost 40 locations nationwide, the Summer Camp offers the most complete football training experience in the world! We guarantee improvement at our Summer Camps and will select players directly for All-American Bowl inclusion. Players our coaches are undecided on will be asked to come to our Elite Camp for more training and a longer look. 

 

Elite Camp (elite.o-d.com) - Similar in structure to our Football Academy, the Elite Camp accepts players from a wider age range (1st grade through 12th) and runs in the summer immediately following our Summer Camps. The Elite Camps are the final chance both for athletes to step up their game both before their own season starts and to be seen and selected for the O-D All-American Bowl! 

 

O-D All-American Bowl (bowl.o-d.com) - The crown jewel of many a camper's experience with Offense-Defense, the All-American Bowl is a celebration of everything football! This year being held in the home of the NFL's Houston Texans, Reliant Stadium, Bowl Week will include events like the Youth All-American Bowl games, the High School Showcase, the O-D National Tournament, the first and biggest youth football convention in the world (O-DCon), the inaugural Can/Am games, pitting the best of Canadian youth football against the All-Stars from America, and of course the O-D All-American Bowl itself which features the very best high school seniors in the country in their last hurrah before their starring roles at Division I colleges in all the biggest conferences in the country. It simply doesn't get better than this!

 

Don't miss out! Don't let your friends and teammates miss out! The O-D Progression is a unique and amazing experience that benefits athletes and parents alike and we want everyone to be a part of it. We can't wait to see you on the field!

2013 O-D Bowl Location Announced!

The wait is over! Houston, TX will be this year's host of O-D All-American Bowl Week from Wednesday, December 26th, to Tuesday, January 1st!

We hope you're all as thrilled as we are that this year's batch of All-Americans will be playing at state-of-the-art Reliant Stadium, home of the NFL's Houston Texans! More information will be coming out over the next week and official Bowl Week registration kicks off September 6th. To celebrate, and to help give out as much immediate information as possible, we'll be chatting live with any and all comers this afternoon at 3pm EST on our Facebook page and USTREAM live broadcast!!!. If you've got any questions, now's the time to ask!

We thank each and every one of you for your patience as we settled on a host location for this prestigious event. We can't wait to see our All-Americans and their families in Houston!

2013 O-D All-American Pre-Bowl Schedule Announced

Head on over to our Bowl site and check out our latest announcement. It's a big one! http://bowl.o-d.com/

2012 Summer Camp Season Highlights

As our 2012 camp season comes to an end we want to thank all the wonderful campers and families we had a chance to see again this year or meet for the first time. Operating our award-winning football camps is only one part of a successful equation – the second, and most important, is the continued support from you, the many members of the extended O-D Family!

From the introduction of our PVP platform, assuring the maximum visibility of young football players to the colleges hungry for new talent, to the incorporation of our cutting edge on-field, Video Instruction program that saw countless camp participants receive unprecedented levels of immediate visual feedback, there were a ton of memories and developments at camp that prove O-D is and will continue to be the premier instructional football camp in the country!

There was the unexpected and unscheduled appearance of Thomas Williams from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at our San Diego camp – Thomas was so excited to see a full-contact camp going on that he got on the field to talk to campers and be a part of the experience. In Baltimore, Bernard Pollard of the Ravens stayed on the field long beyond his contracted appearance, not only taking photos with campers but really coming into his own as a guest instructor and cementing himself as an O-D camper favorite in 2012! The award ceremony at the Dallas camp was simply amazing! The camper and family response was overwhelming and created lasting memories with our staff that will last a lifetime.

We hope everyone enjoyed the 2012 camp season as much as we did! We're looking forward to creating and experiencing many more with each and every one of you. Thank you again...bring on 2013!

Announcing the Offense-Defense Can-Am Bowl!

Building off our growing successes with each yearly O-D Bowl Week, Offense-Defense Sports is proud to announce the latest exciting addition to the All-American Bowl festivities – The Offense-Defense Can-Am Bowl! The Can-Am Bowl brings an international flair to Bowl Week by introducing the very best Canadian youth football has to offer against the cream of the crop from the United States!

The inaugural Can-Am Bowl will debut this year at All-American Bowl Week and tryouts for Team USA will be held at the exclusive, invitation-only O-D Elite Camp, taking place over two weekends in late July. Two teams will be selected from among athletes aged 13-17 through a process of intensive evaluation and ranking being performed at each O-D Elite Camp location.

The best of Canada and America will be on display at O-D Bowl Week this year! Which country will claim grid-iron supremacy? The 1st-annual Offense-Defense Can-Am Bowl will settle the dispute and become the proving ground for patriotic young athletes from both nations.

For Elite Camp dates and locations, visit elite.o-d.com. For up-to-the-minute O-D All-American and Can-Am Bowl info, visit bowl.o-d.com.