QB guru Clarkson's camp helps prepare prepsters for stardom

When Steve Clarkson was a quarterback at Wilson High in Los Angeles and San Jose State in the late 1970s and early '80s, he saw other quarterbacks as the enemy. These days, his foe is the proliferation of the spread offense.

"The one thing you find with high school quarterbacks in the spread is they're hard to evaluate whether they'll ever be able to play on Sundays," Clarkson says. "They don't have fundamentals. They've been in a system for three or four years where they never have taken a dropback. The spread is great for producing points but not necessarily for long-term quarterback development."

Clarkson lasted a season as a third-string quarterback with the Denver Broncos, but his career as the nation's best-known quarterback guru keeps growing.

He was a manager of a Black Angus restaurant when he began working in 1986 with high school quarterbacks on the side. His first pupil, Perry Klein, set California high school records and played briefly for the Atlanta Falcons. These days, it is hard to find a young, accomplished quarterback Clarkson hasn't tutored. He's worked with Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Cassel and Matt Leinart. Before Terrelle Pryor broke into Ohio State's starting lineup last season, he worked with Clarkson. His biggest protégé this season is Matt Barkley, who's making a push to start as a freshman for Southern California.

Clarkson, 47, wrapped up his Super Seven quarterback retreat last month on Maui. Next year's version of Pryor could be Phillip Sims of Oscar C. Smith (Chesapeake, Va.), one of the elite quarterbacks at the camp. Sims, who has said he'll sign with Alabama, led his school to the Virginia Division 6 title last season as a junior.

"With Phillip, he's just a big strong powerful kid," Clarkson said. "Like Pryor, with his arm, you had to teach him that he didn't need a big windup, that less is actually more. He wasn't very consistent. As we progressed and he picked up that first step, he was unbelievable."

Like Pryor, Sims was more accustomed to the spread offense. Unlike Pryor, he's considered more a passer. Last season, he passed for 3,167 yards and 38 touchdowns.

"I have been one of the worst running quarterbacks," Sims said. "I've always been a quarterback who throws out of the pocket, but I think I matured a lot at the camp in my passing. You have to get set to throw, and I was holding the ball too low. It's a bad habit that I get into and that I'm trying to correct. A lot of it is muscle memory that you have to overcome through practice."

Clarkson brought in big guns for instructors, including Joe Montana (whose son Nick was a camper), Warren Moon an d Leinart.

"I don't think you get starstruck, because you don't have the time," Sims said. "Everybody there was in Hawaii for a reason. If I'm working with a fifth-string quarterback from New Mexico State and he knows what he's talking about, then I'm listening."

Another of the campers at the Super Seven, Andrew Manley of Leilehua (Wahiawa, Hawaii), says the chance to make friends with and learn from other quarterbacks was one of the camp's biggest pluses.

"It's not so intense as far as competition," Manley says. "They're just there to help."

And that is one of the biggest lessons Clarkson wants to get across. Once he quit seeing other quarterbacks as enemies, he was able to learn something.

"I wish I could have given my contemporaries more credit," Clarkson said. "I could have had a longer career."