Promotion
Irish Football Fantasy

Irish Football Fantasy

By Michael Preston

Photo courtesy Mike Bennett / Lighthouse Imaging

Forget the Super Bowl, the Grey Cup and college championships. For a group of 50 Fighting Irish faithful and in particular for one Canadian, the annual Notre Dame Football Fantasy Camp is the unrivaled highlight of the football season.

John O’Neill, from Etobicoke, ON, is a 40-year-old whose unlikely dreams of playing football in the legendary Notre Dame Stadium have been realized and now he is back for more. Rubbing shoulders with fellow forty-somethings and even a couple of campers who have reached their seventies, this week, O’Neill is enjoying a uniquely unusual experience.

The entire Notre Dame coaching staff, along with a host of former players who know exactly what it feels like to sit in the Fighting Irish locker room and emerge from the tunnel to the cheers of adoring fans, will pass on the experience to the group of eclectic fantasy campers. O’Neill and teammates will be coached, attend meetings and live for four days in the shoes of a Notre Dame football player, before playing a not entirely contact-free flag football game in Notre Dame Stadium.

“Once I started going to the Irish games, which was close to 20 years ago, I was completely hooked,” explained O’Neill who played hockey rather than football as a youngster in Canada.

“I grew up an Irish Catholic and my parents always used to watch Notre Dame and their goal was just to visit the campus. In our house, from the time you were born you were either an Irish fan or you weren’t welcome at the dinner table.

“Now I have had the opportunity to do what you only see on television or by watching from the stands. I have played in that stadium.”

And O’Neil will play there again on Saturday having returned for a second time to the fantasy camp, which costs $5490 to attend, but is worth every cent according to those who live out their dreams.

O’Neill explained: “The main reason I came back was because the first time it was complete sensory overload. I was doing things and meeting people that I never thought was possible and I was overwhelmed.

“It was a stunning experience that I enjoyed, but something I have to experience again at a slower pace. My family flew in from Toronto on game day and I was so anxious because I couldn’t wait for them to arrive on campus and see how wonderful everything was.

This year, John’s wife Jayne, son John, 9, who has just started to play football, and daughter Jillian, 6, will arrive a few days earlier this time to soak up more of the atmosphere themselves.

“Notre Dame is a very family-oriented place and that extends to everyone involved in the camp,” added O’Neill. “I was very unsure what to expect when I arrived for my Freshman year and it was complete open arms from everyone. They brought you in as if you’d been there for the three or four years that the camp had been running and now we meet in the spring or at a reunion game. There are constant emails throughout the year and like a big family, we are never out of contact for long.”

The highlight of the sixth annual Fantasy Camp will be a flag football game played at 1.30pm on Saturday between a Blue and a Gold team to add some extra competitive spirit to the already passionate experience. An anticipated record crowd of more than 500 might seem dwarfed inside the 80,000-capacity Notre Dame Stadium, but that will not detract from the atmosphere.

“The response from family and fiends who want to see their husband, father or uncle pull on a Fighting Irish jersey and run onto the field to fulfill a dream has been overwhelming,” said event organizer Patrick Steenberge. “I played in this stadium in the 70s and when I hear the click-clack of cleats of the Fantasy Camp players as they run out of the tunnel, it gives me that same feeling of excitement that makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.”

O’Neil agrees. He added: “Coming out of that tunnel is so special and magical.”

With so many highlights, O’Neill, who owns a warehousing business in North America that includes an operation in Toronto, has difficulty in narrowing down the Fantasy Camp to his most memorable moment.

“The biggest highlight is probably the access to the coaches,” he said. “These guys will sit and have a beer with you and actually care about what you’re saying. You imagine them up on pedestals but they’re just regular guys who love Notre Dame and are happy to sit and laugh and joke around. In some ways it is very surreal.”

To add to the authenticity of the event, Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis will return from a visit to the White House to address the campers on Saturday before the Blue and Gold game. It is those special finishing touches that convince some participants to return every year, in some cases for a sixth time.

O’Neill has a message for Fighting Irish fans who are considering signing up for next summer’s 2009 event.

“If you can even think about coming then you should,” he enthused. “It will fulfill every wish that you had and you really feel like you become a part of the Notre Dame family.

“It runs like clockwork and is an extremely well organized event. I go to a lot of events through my business, but this is done down to a tee.

“We now have a standing joke in my house that Disney, which claims to be the happiest place on earth, is actually in second place behind the Fantasy Camp!”

For more details on the Notre Dame Football Fantasy Camp visit: http://www.ndfootballfantasycamp.com/