Make it Happen football camp to bring nearly 50 professionals to Kelowna next month, including NFL, CFL and Division I players

Pro football players coming

Photo: Nolan Ulm

Nearly 50 NFL, CFL and Division 1 football players will be in Kelowna next month.

For the third time in three years, former Kelowna Secondary School grad and NCAA Division I football player Nolan Ulm will be hosting a training camp for local athletes, promising to make it bigger and better than ever.

The Make It Happen Football Camp is back in June for a four-day camp, including the youth camp that will be more than double in size from just one year ago.

“This year we are really looking to go bigger and better. We have 46 guys coming out, with some current NFL Canadians like Tavius Robinson of the Baltimore Ravens. We are already closing in on 100 signups and we still have a few weeks until camp. It’s really exciting," explained Ulm.

Heading into his senior year of Division I football as a member of Eastern Washington University, it's been a long and difficult road for Ulm, but he's thrilled to be coming back to Kelowna to share his story and help inspire the next generation of Canadian football players.

He tells Castanet that sports are more or less meaningless when it comes to wins and losses and that it's really all about teamwork, building great relationships and creating future men to help carry the torch down the line.

"We see sport as a way to sculpt the soul," said Ulm.

"Every single one of these young men is going to be a father, a brother, a son, so that’s what we are looking to do. We integrate a ton of human performance and different strategies with main objectives to impact these kids as players on the field and as people off the field.”

Losing his father at the age of five and being a child to a single mother, Ulm knows about the everyday struggles of life for people who are just trying to make ends meet.

He says every day he wakes up is a blessing.

"All proceeds go to Mamas for Mamas, a charity that supports single mothers, because really, my story starts back when I was born to a single mother who was 18 years old and had to fight for everything she had," said Ulm.

"She did a lot to get me where I am today. She worked three jobs and really changed our life by creating a new one for us. This gave me football and a vehicle to grow and be able to contribute back to where I am from and do it all for these kids.”

Bringing some of his closest allies in the football world to the city of Kelowna has him and young football players excited for the growth of the game and the future of football.

"We want to increase the quality of their life by giving them a compelling future to wake up for, give them goals and a purpose to have meaning in life. That’s what we are looking for, we all want meaning in life. We want to link fun with sport and have kids playing sports as they grow up.”

Kelowna was chosen as a midway point, as The Make It Happen football camp hopes to get the attention of football players from all across BC and Alberta, uniting west Canada under the teachings of some incredibly talented professionals.

The camp will run from June 19-22 and will take place at Kelowna Senior Secondary starting at 4 p.m. daily.

"It’s not enough just to have a why, you need to have a burning why," said Ulm.

"We’re going to guide these kids to find that, and we’re also going to get them to come up with three outcomes and three goals that they want to achieve over the next six months."