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SANDY — The All Poly Camp just wrapped up its 18th season Saturday at Lone Peak Park in Sandy. It has provided hundreds of young football players — some who couldn't afford to attend camp otherwise — with a chance to get quality instruction and get noticed by college coaches.
But this year's camp almost didn't happen and its future was in doubt — until a Division III school from the East Coast stepped in to make it happen.
The camp attracts some of the best high school football players in the state and around the country — Polynesian, as the name entails, or of any other ethnicity, as the camp prefers.
And nearly 130 college coaches from around the NCAA give many kids a chance to get noticed in a way that wouldn't be possible otherwise.
"You've got those hidden gems that pop up here and they make a name for themselves," said the camp's founder, Alema Te'o, who coaches at Alta.
But a new NCAA rule change adopted in April put this year's camp and its future in jeopardy.
Football Bowl Subdivision coaches and staff members can no longer participate in satellite camps — any camp that doesn't operate on a school's campus or partner facilities. Only camps that take place in facilities regularly used by the school for practice or competition are allowed to host summer camps, either for recruiting or skill development.
"It literally gave me just a little over three weeks to find a way to get this thing done," said Te'o, who founded the All Poly Camp in 2009.
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The All Poly founder turned to Utah coach Kyle Whittingham and Oregon State's Gary Andersen for help. With the help of compliance staffs at the two universities, Te'o found a way to keep the camp alive.
Division I universities aren't allowed to actively partner with satellite camps, according to the NCAA's current rules and regulations put into place in the summer of 2016. But lower-division schools? That's not part of the rule.
"You've got to partner up with a Division II or Division III school and then we can come," Te'o recalled from his conversation.
He reached out to several schools that fit the bill as a partner institution. One of those coaches was Southern Virginia head coach Joe Dupaix, a Salt Lake City native who has experience at BYU and Navy, among other stops.
It took a short time for Dupaix to respond: the Knights were in.
"We worked out all the details, crossed the T's and dotted the I's," Dupaix said, "and just went to work all day Friday and made the deal happen."
Te'o was getting nervous; as late as three weeks before the opening day, the camp wasn't going to be able to happen.
Thanks to Dupaix and Southern Virginia, though, the camp continued on at Lone Peak Park as if nothing had ever happened.
"I'm so grateful for it because these kids learned a lot," Dupaix said. "It's not just about football. It's about life, and most coaches you can talk to, they are in it for that reason, to win football games and to help kids become better men, fathers and better husbands, and I think a lot of that took place this week."
Things worked out this year, but the future is still up in the air as the NCAA continues to change the rules regarding satellite camps. Future meetings may change and amend the current rule even further — but for now, the camp is safe.
"It got out of control. It definitely did," Dupaix said. "It feels like they've got it back under control a little bit, but there is a happy medium and I'm not going to figure it out for them. I hope and pray that they will figure it out for the best interest of the kids. To be able to go learn the game and be around great coaches and to be able to learn and grow."
No matter what the NCAA decides, Te'o will continue to fight so these kids can continue to benefit from the All-Poly experience.
"There are a lot of people out there, a lot of haters and a lot of doubters, thinking there is no way. You guys are sunk," Te'o said. "Our approach is that we conquer things. We aren't going to sit around and let it happen. We are going to fight back and so when we found the opportunity to do it … (about) 430 kids later, 130 coaches later, here we go again."
