BLOG: No camp surprises; Richardson is full-speed ahead

The Colts quarterback has been throwing with teammates down in Florida and says he's ready to "sling it" when camp opens in Westfield Thursday

The kids had no idea what awaited them. So when the Speedway High School Sparkplugs football players walked into the school cafeteria Thursday afternoon, they were under the impression that they were poised to do some pre-season media.

 But when they entered the room, they noticed a significant number of reporters and camera tripods set up throughout the facility, and they knew something was up. Doing media generally means talking to one or two people. Something was afoot.

“Don’t miss Thursday,” Speedway head coach Shane Clampitt told them the day before. “Thursday’s a day you won’t want to miss. It’s gonna be a good day.”

Upon further inspection, the players noticed rows and rows of pristine white VICIS ZERO2 helmets, courtesy of VICIS and Certor Sports, standing side by side with a few Speedway helmets, and they put two and two together.

Sort of.

The helmets? There were 100 of them, $800 apiece, a generous $80,000 donation from the two companies, based in Plainfield. All for the Sparkplugs.

“I was born and raised here (in Speedway), I’ve been here my whole life,” Clampitt said. “This is huge for us. This is a program changer. A hundred new helmets? That’s a budget saver. Usually we get 10 to 15 new helmets every year. This is a big deal.”

The players were thrilled, if a little confused. Who was giving them these helmets? And why?

Until a side door opened.

A few moments later, Anthony Richardson, the Colts’ quarterback and putative savior heading into an enormously important season for Chris Ballard and the team, walked in and greeted the team.