Rock Hill didn’t prove much of a danger zone for Fort Dale Academy sophomore Sawyer Hennis, who earned distintion last week as an All-Top Gun member of the Football University camp’s Class of 2019.

Hennis also attended the FBU national camp, located 30 minutes outside of Nashville, Tenn., and he said that the three-day experience could continue to prove beneficial to him for years to come.

“It was a camp was filled with coaches who played at the collegiate and pro level,” Hennis said.

“Their motto was ‘technique plus talent beats talent alone,’ and what they do is try to teach you the best technique there is so that you can play better at the next level.  They try to help you with everything they can, and they do a lot of one-on-one and 7-on-7.”

Most notably for Hennis, however, was the camp’s attention to detail and emphasis on reviewing film of the previous day’s practice.

“First we’d do warmups and stuff, and then instead of just going into practice like we would at Fort Dale, you’d go into classrooms and actually review your plays,” Hennis added. “They’d teach you techniques and talk to you in the class, and they’d review film with you from the day before.

“I actually found it more useful because I could learn more from my mistakes, and then they’d stop the film and replay in show motion and teach me what I did wrong.”

In addition to the added visual aid in practice, Hennis benefited greatly from the perspective of several collegiate athletes for the University of South Carolina as well as Clemson.

Their advice, he said, proved useful toward performing well both on and off the field.

“They were good coaches,” Hennis said. “They knew everything that was going on, and they knew how the game was played, so they could give you a college perspective on what to do and how to do it better.

“What they did that was very different from most camps was they had motivational speakers come in every morning and they touched on a different topic.  We had Laymon Hicks, who’d just gotten his doctorate, and he gave us a very important speech about how you should treat life, and he even gave us some motivational quotes.”

Hennis turned a few heads with his own performance at the linebacker position during the Top Gun camp, earning a spot as a n All-Top Gun member of the Class of 2019 alongside a select few other athletes from around the nation.

The nod also earns Hennis a trip to the San Antonio National Combine, which will be held during the same weekend as the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in January.

But, with a handful of new techniques in tow, Hennis is even more excited for his own upcoming season as a member of the Fort Dale Academy Eagles football team.

“After I’ve been to the camp and everything, I feel like I’m better prepared, and I have more and better techniques that I can bring back to Fort Dale and even show some of my teammates that play with me so we can be better as a team,” Hennis said.

“It really did help, and I feel like I’m better prepared for the upcoming season.”