Nate Costa won’t duck details at his high school QB camp

Nate Costa will give the Division I experience to 30 high school quarterbacks, many from the Stanislaus District.

The former Hilmar High School and Oregon quarterback will return to the Central Valley on Wednesday for the start of the second annual Nate Costa Football Camp, a three-day clinic at his alma mater.

The morning sessions will be dominated by the high school stars of tomorrow – about 100 third- through eighth-graders – and the evening hours will be spent grooming today’s high school hopefuls, on the field and off.

“There’s a lot of talent in the valley,” Costa said. “It’s undervalued and doesn’t command the attention it should nationally. You’re going to get hard-working kids. They might not be as athletic as those from the Bay Area, but I think there’s a lot of great talent in the valley. Sometimes, it’s overlooked because California is such a big state with densely populated areas.”

Costa is proof that major football talent grows among the almond trees and cornfields of the Central Valley.

The 2005 Stanislaus District Football Player of the Year has spent the last eight-plus years in the Pacific Northwest, building an impressive football résumé.

Costa was recruited to play quarterback at Oregon after a decorated career at Hilmar. He was Cal-Hi Sports’ small-school Player of the Year in 2005, when as a senior he accounted for 33 touchdowns and nearly 4,000 yards of total offense.

Though his playing career in Eugene, Ore., was dashed by a series of catastrophic knee injuries, Costa never strayed too far from the game. After a short stint in law enforcement, he worked as a commentator with Comcast SportsNet Northwest. He returned to Oregon in 2013 as a graduate assistant on Mark Helfrich’s staff.

Today, Costa, who recently completed his master’s degree in educational leadership, works with the quarterbacks and wide receivers, those who put the flight and fight in the Ducks’ prolific attack.

On Wednesday, he’ll put a group of high schoolers through the same paces. Costa even has asked each quarterback to bring a wide receiver so they can work on timing and routes.

“I’m going to expose them to things that they’re not exposed to here in the valley,” he said. “At the college level, we do a lot of learning in the classroom.”

To that end, Costa and his coaching staff will put as much emphasis on the whiteboard and film study as they will on footwork, throwing motion and pocket presence.

The camp has been capped at 30 quarterbacks to keep a 10-to-1 player-to-coach ratio, but Costa said the interest was overwhelming. He’ll be assisted by Modesto Junior College coach Rusty Stivers and Oakdale offensive coordinator Tim Meyer, among others. Both played huge roles in Costa’s early development.

“Each day, we’ll do classwork – recognition and leadership principles,” he said. “We’ll throw some of that stuff at them and discuss techniques they probably haven’t learned in high school, but if they do, it’ll be to their advantage.”

The Stanislaus District will be well represented. Quarterbacks from Hilmar, Oakdale, Turlock, Golden Valley, Modesto, Central Catholic, Livingston, Patterson, Central Valley, Escalon, Gustine, Orestimba, Turlock Christian and Le Grand will attend. The camp also will feature signal-callers from Sanger, Dos Palos, Las Plumas and Valley Christian Academy.

Costa’s excitement for this trip home has been building for a year. The children and players who participated in the inaugural camp left a lasting impression on its namesake.

“They were engaged to the point that it surprised me a little bit,” Costa said. “At the end of the two hours, it was pretty hot, and the kids wanted to do more. That was exciting to me. It showed me there was a demand for something like this.”

This story was originally published June 22, 2015 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Nate Costa won’t duck details at his high school QB camp."