In the past, many have compared the game of football to war because of the violent nature of the sport and the sense of brotherhood needed to accomplish something larger than oneself.
Last weekend, the 2025 Marion Patriots added a more literal layer to the saying.
Almost 80 people affiliated with Marion football loaded up on a bus and drove to Little Rock's Camp Robinson last Friday afternoon, and woke up at 5 a.m. Saturday morning, to go through a simulated day of boot camp. The team returned home on Sunday.
In all, almost 70 players went through the drills, as Marion became the first high school program to go through this program in more than 15 years.
“This trip was not about football, we didn't speak about football one time on this trip,” said Marion fifth-year coach Lance Clark. “We believe that the secret to success is about us, it's about teamwork, it's about doing hard things together, and embracing that idea.”
Camp Robinson is home to the Arkansas National Guard Joint Force Headquarters, as well as four other wings of the armed forces, and it consists of 32,000 acres, which is home to 26 small arms ranges and hosts three premier training institutions.
The idea to attend boot camp started off as a team-bonding exercise in the spring, and it expanded over the summer.
“It's human nature for groups of people to become cliqueish, you naturally sort of gravitate towards the people you spend a lot of time with, you're more comfortable around the people you talk to the most,” said Clark. “In football, it's even easier. You form great bonds, but in a small number. Then on the field on a Friday, you end up in hard times, and you wind up trusting your own group, and you may not trust the other group quite as much. So we sought to sort of break that with this trip, and it was incredible to watch.”
“The most impressive thing I saw was how positive everyone was, pretty much the whole weekend,” said Marion athletic trainer Zach Hoyt. “I don't know that I heard one word of negativity, it was always kids pumping each other up, encouraging their teammates. We did a lot of incredible things on the course and during the boot camp portions, but the attitudes were all positive and great.”
The team met at the school on Friday afternoon and boarded the buses en route to Little Rock.
The football coaches created a seating chart to make sure that players sat with someone different, and the staff also created 16 teams of players to tackle the obstacles on Saturday.
“It was always different kids with different kids,” said Clark. “Your seating assignment was not the same as your team, and it was different from the group you were close to in the barracks. It was very important to work with different people as much as possible, and we got a lot out of that.”
Marion arrived at Camp Robinson on Friday night around 8 p.m. and ate dinner as a team in the “chow hall,” on the base.
After dinner, the players moved to the barracks to wind down and get some rest before tackling the obstacles on Saturday morning.
Members of the National Guard entered the barracks around 4:30 a.m. Saturday morning, giving the players about 15 minutes to wake up and get dressed to begin their day.
The players and a lot of coaches took off on a mile run around 5 a.m. On the PT course, located on the grounds, through the terrain.
After the mile run, the team did a PT test with 27 cadets and a pair of colonels. The PT test featured various weight-lifting exercises and some conditioning as the players broke into their 16-team groups.
In those groups, players did the deadlift, hand-release push-ups, sled/drag/carry, and then planks.
“We had a number of kids just back from injury, or even still injured from our summer stuff,” said Clark. “But they were still out there busting it, didn't complain, and in some cases, did better than we have ever guessed, even at full health. It really brought the best out of a lot of our kids.”
The team capped off the early-morning leg with a mile run back to base, and “that was all before breakfast,” said Clark.
After a short amount of downtime, the team headed to the obstacle course, which featured 16 different obstacles, from the army crawl underneath barbed wire to monkey bars.
“That was great because we had kids who did some incredible things,” said Clark. “We had a kid exert a ton of effort in one of the sprints, just getting after it. We had a couple of kids overcome their fear of heights by climbing up 'The Weaver', walking to the top, and walking down the other side. It was just really awesome to be a part of. Kids overcame their fears with their own bravery and support of their teammates, and they'll all be better for it.”
The monkey bar leg played host to one of the more impressive feats of the day when Kejaris Hill gave his team the lead by passing a teammate while the two navigated on the same set of monkey bars.
“Passing someone on the monkey bars is not supposed to happen,” said Clark. “Key Hill had to contort his body around him and pass on the same track.”
Hill's heroics helped his group win the race by just over one second.
After the marathon, the team ate lunch and enjoyed some downtime before dinner, which the National Guard provided by grilling out.
During the meal, recruiters from the National Guard, including Marion football alumni Charlie Cantrell and Dylan Pieri, informed the team about careers in the armed forces and the benefits of joining.
“We are proud of kids who choose to go into the military after high school,” said Clark. “Sometimes you get to play college football, some kids go into the workforce, a lot of kids join the armed forces, and that's an awesome field to go into.”
After dinner, the team went back to the barracks, where Clark witnessed maybe the biggest surprise of the day.
“We walk in there, and a couple of kids were hanging out with each other, and it may have been the first time I've seen them interact,” said the coach. “That's what's really cool, guys getting close on these trips and bonding.”
The team woke up at 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning, cleaned and mopped the barracks and came home.
“It's something that I'll never forget,” said Clark. “It's something that we are going to make a tradition around here. There are things that we can do differently and make it a cooler deal for us. I can't thank the National Guard enough for having us out and showing us what goes into this program. Our district made it a big deal; they made it happen financially, giving us the go-ahead to go down there over summer break and all that stuff."