Football’s up-close experience

It’s almost 90 degrees outside and he’s sunburned, but to Erek Gerende, it’s worth traveling more than 1,300 miles from Southern California to experience.

Between watching his favorite players train and collecting autographs, lifelong Seattle Seahawks fan Gerende is more than enjoying his time at the Seahawks’ training camp. The camp, held at Eastern Washington University, started Aug. 2 and continues until Aug. 25. And with morning and afternoon training sessions open to the public, the camp is attracting plenty of curious onlookers and diehard Seahawks fans.

“Here you get right up near the fence,” Gerende said. “You don’t need binoculars to see their numbers. You hear all the hits and the grunts and you get to know everyone.”

Fans usually crowd the area immediately outside the building where the players enter and exit, asking the players to sign everything from their shoes to their hands. About 600 people visit the camp each day, though more show up for the full practice sessions in the morning than the afternoon practices, which sometimes are only for special teams. Today’s practices are at 8:45 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. A full schedule is online at www.seahawks.com.

Visitors can also participate in the National Football League Experience on EWU’s tennis courts. The area is filled with stations where mainly children test their skills and compare their results to those of Seahawks players. The children can jump around an inflatable castle, practice a vertical leap and test their throwing accuracy, among other activities.

Gerende, at the camp with his parents, collected more than 30 autographs on his Seahawks helmet and jersey in less than two days at the camp. He’s planning to stay throughout the week before traveling to Seattle to see the Seahawks play the Denver Broncos on Aug. 21.

It’s the ultimate experience for a man whose room back in Camarillo, Calif., is decorated with Seahawks curtains, lamps and souvenirs.

He recites Seahawks records, and says he’s disappointed he hasn’t memorized the preseason roster yet.

Like Gerende, Ken Lilliebear of Roundup, Mont., visited the Cheney camp to glimpse player interactions that a bleacher seat at a Seahawks game can’t match.

“You get to watch the players talk with each other and razzle each other,” Lilliebear said. “You feel more personal with them here where you’re around them in their own environment.”

Lilliebear drove from his home near Billings to experience the training camp.

A season ticket holder, he flies from Billings to Seattle during the season to watch his beloved team.

Memorizing statistics and purchasing season tickets aren’t required to enjoy the camp. Blaine Dodson visited the Seahawks training camp at EWU about 15 years ago, and now he’s back with his wife, Kristi Dodson, and their two children.

“We’re just here for the kids and to get some autographs,” Kristi Dodson said.

But identifying players coming off the field without their jerseys can be a challenge for autograph seekers, though Seahawks fanatics like the Gerende family know how to narrow it down to the right player. Gerende thought one player coming off the field was Joey Hollenbeck, but his mother, Shawn Gerende, nixed that idea.

“I don’t think his legs are hairy enough,” Shawn Gerende said.

She still unabashedly went up to the player for his autograph, though she returned empty-handed.

But it’s not over yet, for this morning the Gerendes will dutifully return to practice ready to add to the autographs already crowding their souvenirs.