Image courtesy of BNEFC

Newport, Rhode Island is arguably the best place to be in the entire country if you’re a youth, high school or college coach this weekend.

For the 50th season, the Big New England Football Clinic will have some incredible speakers (between 30-40) that include Bill O’Brien, Dante Scarnecchia and Don Brown. Between 500-600 high school coaches will be walking through the doors of the Newport Marriott both Friday and Saturday to learn from some of the biggest names that have incredible amounts of experience at both the D1 and NFL levels.

From the basement of the St. Raphael Academy in Pawtucket to the elaborate set up that is usually a year in the making, the Big NEFC has turned into one of the premiere offseason events nationwide.

“Chet O’Neil – who is the founder of the clinic – and he had known my dad who was a football coach in Rhode Island years ago and I started working for Chet in the clinic back in 1985,” Keith Kenyon, the owner and co-director of the clinic (along with Terry Lynch) explained during a phone interview on Monday. “When he got towards the tail end of it he had said he wanted me to take it over at a certain time.

“We negotiated that in 2011 and since 2012 I’ve been running the Big New England Football Clinic…Chet started in the basement of a parochial school in Pawtucket a long time ago and it’s been a pretty successful clinic.”

That very first clinic had more speakers than attendees, which makes its continued so success such a great story.

“My grandfather, Bob Horan – who will be at the clinic – he’s one of the only guys left who was at the original clinic, there were more guys speaking than listening back then,” Kyle Archer, one of the main consultants for the clinic said in a phone interview on Monday. Archer has coached all around New England, including at Maine and Brown. “It means everything to me. I grew up around this clinic. I’ve gotten jobs through this clinic. It’s just a big part of my whole year.”

Coaches like O’Brien have plenty on their plate right now with spring ball starting and in O’Brien’s case, a life-changing decision just being made recently. But, the reputation this event has built for itself over the years makes it a no-brainer for most to attend if they can.

“When Billy O’Brien got hired at Boston College, we had him secured (to speak at the clinic) before he even had his press conference,” said Kenyon.

That isn’t the case without years and years of relationship building, which ultimately, is what coaching is mostly about.

“We have relationships with a lot of really good people,” Kenyon added. “The cultivating of relationships with these people during the course of the year and also through my lifetime in the game of football…it’s constantly staying in touch with people and trying to find out who are the up and coming young coaches.

“Dante Scarnecchia has been a loyal friend. He loves to come back and talk football, he’s been great. Don Brown at UMass. Unfortunately we lost Bobby Chesney this year, he used to speak every single year…we have two things that we try to do. We try to get the best speakers we possibly can and then we don’t allow our coaches to come in and talk philosophy or recruiting. We make them talk X’s and O’s. It’s about the game of football and helping people learn. To us, it’s a professional development conference and we want to provide the best X’s and O’s and experience as possible.”

As the world of camps and clinics for both players and coaches continues to explode, the Big New England Football Clinic the Massachusetts High School Coaches Clinic next weekend at Gillette Stadium and the CT High School Coaches Clinic in April have all become destinations for various programs around the country.

It’s still New England vs. Everybody when it comes to building up the national reputation, and these endeavors have gone a long way in changing the narrative.

“There’s so many talented kids at these schools, they’re just not as advertised as other kids in bigger conferences,” said Archer. “There’s kids that are hidden gems that can play…I think overall, New England’s in a great place. One of the things I really see – and I’m kind of outside looking in now because I’m not coaching – but, it’s the New England prep schools. I mean, there’s a lot of Power 5 high school football players in New England now. If Billy (O’Brien) and UConn and UMass can keep those – well now you’ve got kids that are being looked at nationally – if you can keep those kids home, now we’ve really got something.”

“I think there’s some outstanding coaches in New England and there’s obviously some outstanding players too,” Kenyon said. “Something that limits us is in other areas of the country, 1. we’re determined by weather, we don’t have the ability to be outside year round and 2. I think some of the rules from state associations inhibited the amount of time coaches can spend with their players in the offseason…but, for the most part, we’ve had some great players from New England go on to play real high levels of football.”

It’s a family affair for almost everyone involved this weekend, with the logistics being pretty tedious to work through, but done out of an undying love for the game of football.

“Oh yeah, it’s a year-round thing,” acknowledged Kenyon. “it’s huge. I’m really fortunate that my wife is heavily involved in it, she handles the finances. My daughter’s been very involved in the website production and social media. So, it’s a small group that runs it. We are not corporate and a lot of clinics we compete against are…over the two day period, you’re arranging for your staff and your clinicians, their hotel rooms. The food, the organization of it, the blocks of times when coaches can come in and speak. Some can come in Friday but not Saturday, so you have flights to adjust. This year, we’re doing something we’ve never done and taping all of our lectures and then we’ll have them professionally edited and available to our coaches at a reasonable rate.

“We have six rooms going on at a time, so you can’t see everything all at once…that’s a big piece of it. The live lectures we do in the atrium are will Salve Regina players. Head coach Kevin Gilmartin provides his players, so we provide all the field equipment provided needed to run drills. A lot of people chip in and help us out. It’a a lot of moving parts, there’s no question about it.

“As I say to everybody all the time, I love what I do. I’m retired now and don’t coach anymore, this keeps me connected to the game of football and the people in it. It’a labor of love. We love doing it and really enjoy doing it.”

Doing anything for 50 years is impressive, but this weekend will be a true celebration of New England football and its growth thanks to the Big NEFC.

“I think it’s incredible,” added Kenyon. “What Chet started years ago was in the basement of St. Raphael’s Academy and the people around him were encouraging him not to continue because they had more speakers than people to listen…50 years, we should all be proud of it.”