If you pay a visit to the OSU football camp, you see athletes, lots and lot of athletes, participating in drills, games, and competitions during the camp. Some are skilled, some are not. Some are Division I prospects, others are not. Some arrive with a reputation, some leave with a new one. Dotted along the sidelines, you very often see the parents of some of these athletes who make the trip to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center to watch their kids participate in the camp. That is all pretty routine stuff. That is, unless you are a high profile, highly touted high school football athlete whose father just happens to be a former All Pro offensive lineman. If that is the case, your presence at the camp is big news, and your father's presence brings out the media just to see dad and son together at one football facility.

Such was the case this week at the OSU football camp when Mike Munoz of Cincinnati Moeller High School arrived for the OSU football camp. Though he will only be a junior next season, one look at Mike and you know he is a definite Division I prospect. Mike, seen checking into camp below in the Moeller T-Shirt, stood out in the crowd even before the drills began.He just looks the part of a Division I prospect, standing a head taller than most other campers and weighing in at 300+ pounds, most of it distributed well on his rather wide body.

Mike seemed to be very competitive in drills and also seemed to be having a good time. What really stirred things up was when Mike's dad, former Cincinnati Bengal and All Pro offensive tackle Anthony Munoz, arrived on Wednesday to observe his son's performance at camp. The O-Zone got a chance to talk to the elder Munoz, and was pleased to find something we really didn't expect; namely, a really level headed, nice guy who was just there to see his son play a little football. Anthony Munoz could not have been more delightful or accommodating, and answered the O-Zone's questions about the football camp phenomenon with grace and charm.

According to Anthony Munoz, camps such as the one his son attended at OSU are a real bonus for the participants, and he was very impressed by what he saw at Ohio State.

"I look at this camp, and what is there, close to a thousand kids? And to see how well it's run, I'm impressed. There are what, 300 offensive linemen, but they are all getting reps, they have them at stations working on different blocking schemes, I mean 22 years ago when I was going through high school, there was nothing like this. First of all, I was over swinging the bat like you hear over there (referring to the OSU baseball camp that was going on at the same time as the football camp) because that was my baseball time, but this is phenomenal. To get the type of coaching they're getting at this young age, I think it is really good for them," said Anthony.

With a father whose exploits are legend as an offensive lineman, and the physical tools he has been blessed with, you would think there is a lot of pressure on Mike Munoz to excel on the football field. That might be the case, but the pressure definitely does not come from his father. Anthony Munoz seems to have found that elegant difference between support and pressure that many parents of gifted athletes find hard to discover. That parental push can often lead to burnout in an athlete, but don't look for that to happen to Mike Munoz.

"I think it depends on every situation. I know our son, he is going to be a junior, and this is something that he initiates, that it is something that he wants to do. Your looking at three days. This is his second one, so you are looking at six days out of the summer. He went down to the Tennessee camp, so you're six days out of three months in the summer, two and a half months. Now if you are doing every camp that is possible, four or five or six or seven camps, I don't know. I think that might be a little much. But just to get an exposure of living in the dorms overnight with your buddies, just getting the routine that you're going to be faced with if you do move on to the next level, It's a great experience," said Munoz.

Munoz said he finds the "combine" aspect of the football camp, that is the opportunity to showcase talent for many collegiate coaches, a real positive. Anthony Munoz on the Sideline at the OSU Football Camp.

"I think it's a positive, because you look at the mentality of the kids and they're all looking at D-I schools, looking to play at Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Notre Dame, but here, the great thing about it, you have every level of college coach here that is looking at those kids that might not have that opportunity to come to an Ohio State, but all of a sudden they have the opportunity to play something they love beyond the high school level at a smaller school, another four or five years of football. Plus you have all the high school coaches that are working these camps. What a great experience for them to be able to work with coach Cooper and his staff and the other college coaches. I see it as a positive, I really do," said Munoz.

Out of respect for their privacy, the O-Zone did not ask Anthony Munoz where he thought his son might like to play collegiate football. It just did not seem appropriate at the time. After all, the guy gave me his precious time while he was trying to watch his son at camp, and I really did not want to pry, but I did in fact overhear him say to another person on the sideline that Mike really wants to go to school someplace kind of close to home. Hmmmm. Which is closer to Cincinnati; Knoxville, South Bend or Columbus? Might there be a Munoz in the future for OSU football?

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