Hittin’ in the summer.

That’s what the St. James High School football team was doing over the weekend while taking part in the East Central Football Camp on the campus of St. Francis Borgia High School in Washington.

The event was a full-contact camp. In each session teams ran several offensive and defensive plays against another school and no team scores were kept.

“It’s a big help during the summer,” said St. James High School football head coach Greg Harlan of the full-contact event. “I think it’s one of the best values in the state, at just $30 per kid to get in a lot of football. And the value the kids learn on the field in the summer is great.”

On Friday St. James took on Washington No. 2, St. Clair and Borgia. And on Saturday the Tigers faced Lutheran/St. Charles, Orchard Farm and Pacific.

Harlan said it was solid on-field experience for his squad, which will be inexperienced at the varsity level in 2009 after going 1-9 during the 2008 campaign.

“We have a small number of seniors, so we’ll be young,” Harlan said. “Over the weekend we got a lot of kids and lot of playing time. We had 26 kids in the camp.”

The next big off-season event for the Tiger gridders will be the St. James High School Football Camp for kids in grades 9-12. The camp will be held 20-31, from 5-8:30 p.m. at the St. James High School Field.