TEMPE, Ariz. As Arizona State football coach Todd Graham was exiting Thursday’s news conference announcing a return to Camp Tontozona, a reporter asked if he had purchased his bedding yet for the camp’s notoriously rugged cabins.
“You don’t think I’m actually going to sleep there,” Graham said with mock surprise. “I’ll be staying at the lodge nearby.”
Graham was joking. He will rough it with the rest of the Sun Devils from Aug. 14-18 when ASU ends a five-year hiatus with training camp practices at its traditional home along with a scrimmage on the final day.
But let’s make one thing clear: This decision was not really made for the players or the coaches.
The decision to return to Tontozona for the first time since 2007 was a nod to ASU’s alumni, boosters and fans — most of whom never have spent a night at Camp T to help dispel their romantic notions of the place.
"Tradition is really what brings people together," Graham said. "I can't wait to be at the top of Mount Kush with our team, singing the fight song."
Of course, that’s the only place at Camp T where Graham will find a cell phone signal. And it may be the only mud-free spot when Camp T’s regular rain showers wash out another practice and force the Sun Devils onto rented buses for the stomach-churning drive into Payson.
It’s fair to say that no coach ever has enjoyed Camp T as much as the guy who got it going, Frank Kush. In a high-tech age when recruiting, cell phones and computers are a daily requirement of the job, it’s also fair to say former coaches Dirk Koetter and Dennis Erickson hated the place.
But after four trying seasons without a winning record under Erickson and a new athletic director who understands the power and importance of positive PR, the Devils will make a go of it for 4 1/2 glorious days — all for the sake of past generations.
“We wanted to reach out and engage many of those folks again — engage so many of the folks that are involved in our Sun Devil nation,” athletic director Steve Patterson said. “We had over 500 people respond with donations, anywhere from $10 to $10,000. We had football players from every generation that has played here. We had the majority of our staff engaged.”
ASU set a goal of raising $150,000 by June 1 to fund the Camp T return. Patterson said Thursday that the school has raised “north of $160,000,” although some of that is still in the form of pledges that must be collected. The White Mountain Sun Devil Club forked over the biggest chunk with a matching gift up to $65,000.
When asked if this was the renewal of an annual trek, Patterson noted that “a fair amount of the funds that were raised are going to capital items that need to be addressed before we get up there.”
Included in those items were the renovation of the upper practice field ($50,000) and the installation of a video editing network for the coaching staff ($30,000). Presumably, those items won’t need additional attention, so the cost of returning in years to come wouldn’t be as high. It’s also important to remember that ASU’s budget came out for this fiscal year before the Camp T initiative was launched, so the school could not include it.
In ensuing years, the school will be able to budget money for Camp Tontozona, assuming it has it.
When asked if there were hopes of adding a cell phone tower and internet service in the future, Patterson and Graham both said the short stay at Tontozona may not necessitate that.
“I really do believe it’s a positive thing,” Graham said. “With all the luxuries that we have in college football — with those luxuries, there’s so many distractions. To be able to go to a secluded place like that in our first year when relationship is so important — to develop our team, to strain them, to train them, to have no distractions — is going to be exactly what we need.”
Time will tell if that belief endures beyond this season, but Thursday wasn’t about cynicism or skepticism. It was about renewed hope in a maddeningly inconsistent program.
In that light, it made sense that in its press release, ASU dusted off one of its most celebrated alumni for a statement to energize the maroon and gold masses.
“Camp Tontozona was simply about a bonding experience for us, especially as freshmen,” said quarterback Jake Plummer, who led ASU to its last Rose Bowl after the 1996 season. “For me, it was my indoctrination to college football. It culminated in a Rose Bowl. It was Camp Tontozona that brought us together.”
