Horizon football players gather around the fire at their 2025 camp retreat. (Photo courtesy Tyson Ditmore)
SCOTTSDALE — Horizon Football is returning to Camp Tontonzona for the first time with Tyson Ditmore leading the way.
Ditmore, in his third year as the Huskies head coach, will take the Huskies to Payson for practice and team bonding July 20-22. For the players on the team, they couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity.
“It’s a great opportunity,” senior linebacker CJ Battle said. “When the team heard about us going up there, we were all excited. Very excited.”
You must be a member to read this story.
Join our family of readers starting at $5 for your first month and support local, unbiased journalism.
SCOTTSDALE — Horizon Football is returning to Camp Tontonzona for the first time with Tyson Ditmore leading the way.
Ditmore, in his third year as the Huskies head coach, will take the Huskies to Payson for practice and team bonding July 20-22. For the players on the team, they couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity.
“It’s a great opportunity,” senior linebacker CJ Battle said. “When the team heard about us going up there, we were all excited. Very excited.”
“It means a lot,” wideout James Klopfenstein said. “It’s my senior year. My older brother did it when he was in high school, and I’ve always wanted to do it since and I haven’t been able to until this year, so it’s definitely the most excited I’ve been to go to football camp my entire high school career.”
Once the vision of ASU President Grady Gammage, Camp T has become a premier camp destination for football programs across the state. It serves not only as a place to improve a player’s skills on the gridiron, but also provides the opportunity to make endless memories that will last a lifetime. Aside from football, camp provides the opportunity for the athletes to grow closer and bond as people instead of just as players. Part of how they do that is through teambuilding activities, such as a talent show and a wiffle ball tournament.
“We have a talent show that we do on the first night, and the seniors aren’t allowed to participate in it,” Coach Ditmore said. “The seniors will be the judges.”
“We’ve had some pretty amazing talent show experiences that have been pretty funny,” Klopfenstein added. “It’s a little disappointing not being able to participate, because that’s one of the best times, but I’ve done it the last couple of years and now it’s my time to start judging.”
Battle said the talent show is great because it’s good to see people laughing and making jokes with each other and it leads to a ton of memories.
“I think our favorite and most unique thing we do is an annual wiffle ball tournament,” Ditmore said.
He explained they break the group up into 10 teams, with each coach leading one of the teams. From there, they put a tournament together, and the winner gets to go to Buffalo Wild Wings on Coach, of course. Last year, Coach Andres Zalaya’s team took home the gold.
While the players do get to have fun, they practice hard while they’re up north. Coach Ditmore said they practice three times a day at camp, which can be challenging energy-wise for many of the kids, but if they can get in at least two good practices, it’s considered a good day.
“The coaches are going to push us a lot harder at camp, you know, when it’s just us,” Battle said. “No eyes are on us, no pressure to live up to whatever expectations other people have, it’s just us. I think for us to succeed in that, we have to come together and push through all those hard times the coaches are going to put us through.”
While the players bond with each other, so do the coaches on retreats like this.
“It’s huge for us,” Ditmore said. “We all share, like, a huge bunk ... The coaches bond just as much when we’re away from the kids, and then I think for us as a staff we always make it a point to keep that bond together.”
Heading to a camp like this is not cheap, and the kids fundraise all throughout the year to be able to go. Additionally, part of their yearly participation fee goes toward funding their camp experience.
“It’s a lot of fundraising,” Battle said. “Our coaches are very hard on us for fundraising ... We have our all-in fundraisers and we have our earn it fundraisers. Each player is expected to have a minimum of $400 raised.”
Coach Ditmore also noted the team’s in a lucky position because so many kids come from families that can afford to send their kids to camp.
According to Ditmore, his biggest desire at camp this year is to see a group of players step up to the plate and take on leadership positions. He mentioned Klopfenstein as an obvious leader this season, but noted other kids need to fill the roles vacated by the seniors last season.
“There’s several others that are you know maybe juniors or you know some of the other seniors that haven’t sprouted,” Ditmore said. “They need to step up and find these leadership roles so we can get cooking in August.”
Brittany Bowyer is a Report for America corps member, covering sports for Independent Newsmedia in Arizona. Report for America places talented journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and regions.
By 
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here