This month in Generation Next we feature one of our seasoned camp veterans, Clayton "Coop" Lewis. Coop, as he is known to the Sports International staff, is a junior playing at Hononegah Community High School in Rockton, IL. He has been attending the Alex Brown Football Camp for the past 9 years. It was his love of football and the Chicago Bears that drove him to attend camp but so much more that kept him coming back.

Coop really enjoyed being able to work hard and focus on football at camp. Over the years he has worked with many great coaches with his favorite being one of our long-standing vets, Andy G from Texas. The coaching staff has taught him many things that helped him improve as a player over the years. From the importance of taking care of your body through diet and exercise to simply learning techniques and drills to improve on his position.

For Coop there is more to camp than just the work on the field. There is the camaraderie with his peers and the bonds of friendship that he has made with the people he has come in contact with throughout the years.

And when you're a football fan there's nothing like getting to learn from players on your favorite team. "It's nice to hear tips coming from someone who really knows and has lived it," says Coop about learning from Chicago Bears players. Among his favorite to visit camp so far have been Brian Urlacher and Devin Hester.

Most of all Coop has enjoyed getting to know and learning from camp headliner, Alex Brown, over the course of his time at camp. "Getting to know and work under Alex has helped me to be a better student athlete.  I really admire him" Alex stresses the importance of school to his campers and Coop has taken that message to heart. He is currently a Northern Illinois Conference Scholar Athlete and was just accepted into the National Honor Society.

In addition to the Alex Brown Football Camp, Coop has also attended the one-day Specialty Clinics, which helped him further hone his football skills. He found them to be very helpful and attributes them to helping him become starting Defensive End on his Varsity team and win the Outstanding Tight End Award at camp in 2008.

This year Coop's team, the Hononegah Indians, were 7-2 losing in the second round to the team that would become the runners up in the Championship game in Class 7A. Coop led the team in sacks and was 2nd in tackles.

This will be Coop's last year at the Alex Brown Football Camp since he will be graduating in 2011. He hopes to play sports in college at a Division 1 school with his "dream school" being Notre Dame. There he hopes to study medicine. This might be his last year with us at Sports International but we expect to hear great things from Coop Lewis in the future.