This past weekend, top-notch athletes and coaches helped run a free football camp at Tiospa Zina Tribal School and you’ve probably never heard of the camp.

Football For Life is a non-profit organization which was started back in 2017 by Joe Pina, who’s from Orange County, California. His whole goal is to provide football as a means to help kids growing up on reservations.

“In 2015, there was a suicide epidemic on Pine Ridge. And at that time, I was kind of researching things to see what I could do to help in different ways. … I actually found a video from Crow Creek, and on the Crow Creek sidelines, there was nothing. No equipment, a water bottle, one football, a couple coaches,” said Pina. “If I could get guys to come up, and I could get equipment to come up from SoCal, we could help. And that’s where it all started and then it just snowballed from there.”

The first ever camp took place on the Pine Ridge reservation back in 2017. Within the past couple summers, Football For Life has grown to hold camps on reservations in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and four different reservations in South Dakota at four different high schools: Lakota Tech, Todd County, Lower Brule, and Tiospa Zina.

“So, we started on Pine Ridge in 2017 with just Pine Ridge High School. We only had like 25 guys,” Pina said. “We’ve gone from 25 the first year in 2017 to over 450 last year.”

Not only does Pina come up from California for these camps, but he gets top-notch coaches to help run the camps. At Tiospa Zina, there were two NFL veterans, offensive linemen Hugh Thornton (drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in 2013, 3rd Round) and Teton Saltes (UDFA to the Jets in 2021, currently playing for the St. Louis Battlehawks in the UFL) who grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation himself. The list includes multiple college players, or recent college players, and multiple high school coaches who have experience playing at a higher level.

“We’re bringing out guys from the NFL, professional athletes,” Pina said. “We’re just trying to get in front of as many kids as we can, both boys and girls. You can kind of see it, giving out a hat, I didn’t know that it would mean so much. You can just see it in their faces.”

Saltes has been helping with Football For Life for two summers now, and he was able to bring Thornton along for this camp at Tiospa Zina.

“He hit me up and asked me ‘Do you wanna come help out Football For Life?’ and I was like ‘Yeah bro, of course,’ so they flew me in in a little prop plane,” Thornton said. “It’s definitely something I can see that it’s got a great foundation and legs that are built to run. Excited to be a part of it, thankful for the opportunity and I look forward to doing it again.”

Hehaka Catches was an original camp attendee back in 2019 and was able to play college football at Minnesota Morris with the help of Football For Life. Now he gives back to the organization that helped him get to the next level.

“I think I was a sophomore in high school. That’s when I first heard about it. I thought it was something interesting to try out because I love football and it sounded pretty cool,” Catches said. “It feels like I’m being accomplished in my life being able to get to where I’m at. Went through high school, graduating and getting to the next level. Going into college and becoming a coach and figuring out what I want to do for myself. Not only myself, but also my community.”

Justin Sanchez flew in with Pina from Southern California and spent his college years playing linebacker at Colorado State. Pina’s close friend Rich Ruiz got Sanchez, and myself, involved with Football For Life.

“After I graduated from Colorado State, Coach Ruiz hit me up to join Football For Life because he’s good friends with Joe Pina,” Sanchez said. “It’s been really eye opening seeing the different lifestyle that they live and different environments that they have to go though. All the adversity that they have to go through to get out here and play football and get on a field. I’m giving back to them, but they’re giving back to me.”

Eriq Swiftwater, the current head coach at Lakota Tech, was the first ever Football For Life Scholarship recipient and now gives back to the organization that gave to him.

“Ran into a financial situation my last year at Black Hills. Passed scholarship time, passed loan time and family didn’t have money, and I was on the fringe of dropping out going into my last semester,” Swiftwater said. “Joe was able to get in contact, reach out, and they were able to give me a scholarship to finish out my last semester. I graduated three months following that.”

Other coaches included myself, Holden Havlik, Kansas Middletent, and Nick Shriver. With all these coaches, Swiftwater has been able to take more of an administrative role and rely on all the coaches.

“It’s nice to be able to get a bunch of coaches together from all different walks of life and put them into a position that they can feel comfortable that they can excel in,” Swiftwater said. “It’s been a blast so far, just the continuous growth that we’ve had over the years. Not only the camp itself, but for my position within the camps. Now it’s just interacting with the kids and stuff.”

With a great group of coaches, and a great group of kids, it made for a great day of camp. Especially for Thornton who spends his time training college prospects and professional athletes.

“When you’re working with professional athletes, college athletes, and then you get a chance to step away, it almost takes you back to your roots why you fell in love with football in the first place,” Thornton said. “This was awesome. I’d rather be here than at a Rivals Camp for sure. This was a lot more fun.”

Even with such an experienced coaching staff, the camp was open to all athletes whether they’ve played football their whole life or have never played before.

“I think it went really well. There were good numbers, a lot of talent and a lot of new faces and young people that wanted to learn how to play football,” Catches said. “A lot of players that didn’t know, that seemed like they wanted to try and that’s what I want to see in all these young kids.”

With Football For Life growing every year, Pina is excited for the future, especially at Tiospa Zina.

“It’s always fun. There’s a real positive atmosphere and you don’t always see that,” Pina said. “Sometimes, it’s our job to bring the positivity, but here, it’s just a different atmosphere. I hope to be coming here all the time, every year.”