Several East Texas athletes were at the 19th annual East Texas Passing Academy at Jeff Traylor Stadium in Gilmer this week.

“Well, we want to do something here where kids actually get to come feel like when they leave here, we’ve actually been given something that we can take with us, not just rush from one station to another,” Gilmer head football coach Alan Metzel told CBS 19. “We want to try and get as many reps in as possible, give feedback to guys. And we’re rooting for East Texas. You don’t end up ‘Beast Texas’ for nothing. So we want to be a part of that. I think camps like this are really good because it gets you out of your box. You get to kind of see what some of these other guys are doing in other schools, and you realize, ‘hey, I need to step my game up.'”