Lamar Football Camp Thursday at Lindale. (Brandon Ogden/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

LINDALE — When you look at the Lamar football roster, you will see a heavy dose of East Texans.

The Cardinals were back in East Texas on Thursday for a football camp at Lindale High School.

“This is part of our heavy recruiting ground right here,” second-year Lamar head football coach Pete Rossomando said. “We do a lot of recruiting here. We want to want to continue to build those relationships and make sure they have accessibility to Lamar and our football program.”

Assistant coach Coby Gipson, who coaches wide receivers and is the recruiting coordinator for Lamar, knows the importance of recruiting East Texas.

“I think what we have built at Lamar is representative of what’s in Beaumont, which is a lot of hard-working people that can look adversity in the eye and not flinch,” Gipson said. “I think those qualities match East Texas pretty well, as well. Growing up here, I see a lot of similarities.

“Ultimately, if you love football and have good values and high standards and you want to come in and work like all these teams in East Texas do, it’s a really good fit. There’s not much of a transition from their high school experience to their college experience in what they’re going to get.”

Gipson was the head coach at Bishop T.K. Gorman for five seasons, including leading the Crusaders to the TAPPS state semifinals in 2014. He also spent time as an assistant coach at East Texas Baptist University and Howard Payne University.

A lot of players attended the camp on Thursday looking to showcase their skills.

“Most of the guys we know, we’ve invited, and we’ll get an opportunity to work with them for the first time,” Rossomando said. “And that’s really what it is, to see how they take coaching, how they absorb coaching, how they take the things we tell them and bring it out to the field. It’s gives us the chance to get to know them and watch them compete.”

Among the players at the camp were Lindale offensive lineman Trey Rozell.

“It’s just a big opportunity to go and get better today with my teammates and as an individual,” Rozell said. “It’s fun to get to grind it out, and I get to show how much I’ve improved and see how much they have improved, too.”

Lamar players from East Texas are Jaymond Jackson (Lindale), Khalan Griffin (Chapel Hill), Jayden Boyd (Tatum), Aiden McCown (Rusk), Kendric Malone (Tatum), Jamarion Evans (Center), Donavan Jordan (Tyler Legacy), Lane Gilchrest (Rusk/Tyler Junior College), Koda Canady (Jacksonville), John Hester (Hawkins), Kade Verden (Bullard), Devyn Gibbs (Mabank), Peyton Christian (Kilgore), Emonte “Cash” Cross (Center), Isaiah Menefee (Lufkin), Zaylon Stoker (Kilgore) and Omarion Rasberry (Garrison).

Lamar went from 1-10 overall and 1-5 in conference in 2022 to 6-5 overall and 5-2 in conference in 2023 in the first season under Rossomando.