Joe Schobert returns home, gives back once again with annual football camp

WAUKESHA - With barely a cloud in the sky on Saturday afternoon, kids and high schoolers flocked to Waukesha West High School to learn from one of its former standouts.

For the second consecutive year, former Wisconsin walk-on turned Big Ten Linebacker of the Year turned NFL Pro Bowler Joe Schobert hosted his camp at the high school where he now has a jersey retired. The inspiration to start the event came from a former Badgers teammate.

"Actually Alex Erickson has a camp in Darlington which I helped at after my rookie season," Schobert said on Saturday after the youth session. "I looked and was like, ‘Well I should do something like this in Waukesha,’ but it was already in the middle of the summer. I couldn’t really schedule anything so I started planning for the year after, which was last year. So I really have to give credit to him for what he was doing. He raised a lot of money for his high school and the youth program."

Schobert divided the camp into two sessions: one for 3rd-8th graders earlier in the afternoon from 1-4 p.m., and another for high school players from 5-8 p.m. With walk-ups, Schobert estimated there were 75 participants for both sessions.

As done previously, all proceeds go back to the community.

"Last year, I did a fundraiser for [Waukesha] West and the youth program," Schobert said. "This year, all proceeds go to the youth programs in the area, so it’s a good fundraiser, if anything else, for the local youth sports.”

Schobert recalls some of the values he learned from Waukesha West head coach Steve Rux and others from the program.

"[Rux]’s implemented a really good program off-season conditioning-wise, good structure for offense and defense at the high school level," Schobert said. "Coach [Jeff] Trickey was our quarterbacks coach. Offensive guy when I was in high school, and he would always preach responsibility, accountability.

"Those two really just kind of planted the seeds, that stuff, because when you get to college, you have to be responsible, you have to be accountable otherwise you’re not going to pass your classes or get on the football field. I think those really were the first times where I was able to kind of get that instilled in me with the coaches around here, and it's been able to carry that all the way through.”

Of course, Schobert brought along some friends with Wisconsin ties to the camp. Former teammates Joel Stave and Trent Denlinger participated in the camp, along with another former Badgers' walk-on in Joel Nellis, who recently was named head coach of Brookfield Central. Though he did not wear the cardinal and white at UW, current Cleveland Browns tight end Seth DeValve also joined the camp.

For Schobert, the camp also allows the old teammates to reconnect.

"Joel's up in Appleton. Trent, my friend, old roommate at Wisconsin, is down in Iowa, so everybody’s kind of bounced around all over," Schobert said. "It’s a good excuse to get everybody back for a weekend. Kind of hang out a little bit. Catch up and see where life’s taken you because like I said, people are spreading out and it’s getting harder and harder to get to see each other on a consistent basis.”

Back after OTAs with the Browns, Schobert has bounced around in training, working out at NX Level in the Waukesha area along with coming back to Madison to lift with former outside linebacker Vince Biegel and the Wisconsin program. He also had a chance to golf with Erickson.

In due time, however, Schobert will head back to Cleveland in just about a week-and-a-half as he reports to Browns' training camp on July 24. The AFC North franchise finished 7-8-1 last season but nearly pushed for a playoff spot.

Freddie Kitchens took over head coaching duties earlier this year, and the organization hired Steve Wilks to replace Gregg Williams in leading the defense. Schobert noted the change has "been a pretty smooth transition."

“Still a 4-3 defense, so it hasn’t been too terrible in terms of learning new overall philosophies. It’s just more language and ins and outs of the defense," Schobert said. "Coach Wilks and his coaching staff have all been very good teachers, so it’s been a pretty easy transition for the whole defense. It’s been exciting to see everybody mesh in the spring - offense and defense in the competition periods - and I'm really excited to see where the team goes in this training camp and the start of the season.”

Schobert stated his personal goal every year is to record 100 tackles, and the past two seasons he has accomplished just that. His 144 tackles during the 2017 season tied for the league lead, which led to a Pro Bowl spot. Though he missed three games in 2018, he still reached over the century mark in recording 103 stops.

That objective stays the same in 2019.

"This year, just get 100 tackles again. It’s been doing me well," Schobert said. "Don’t worry about too much other stuff just kind of, as a 'Mike' (middle) linebacker got to get everybody lined up so know my job, know my role, get a 100 tackles, get a lot of wins.”

After his time at Wisconsin where he claimed the Butkus-Fitzgerald Big Ten Linebacker of the Year honor along with multiple All-America accolades in 2015, the Browns drafted him with the 99th overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.

That squad gained only mustered a 1-15 record in Schobert's rookie campaign, but a lot has changed from that first season playing on Sundays. Along with the front office changes in hiring John Dorsey as general manager in December 2017 and the head coaching changes, Cleveland appears to have found its quarterback with another former walk-on in Baker Mayfield. In the franchise's biggest move this offseason, it also acquired wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr. from the New York Giants via a trade that included former Badgers' standout guard Kevin Zeitler heading to the NFC East organization.

“People ask me how the NFL's been. I say, 'Good - well the first two years weren’t that good, but last year was fun,' " Schobert said. "We were able to get some wins under our belt, and I think just the amount of people we got, the talent we have on this team is just there's a lot of potential. Just as long as everybody stays healthy and smart, it’ll be awesome to see a turnaround from what it was when I got there and play through the first two years to being a playoff contending team.

"The city of Cleveland last year when we were getting close to the playoffs at the end of the season, almost .500 record, was up in the arms. Everybody was excited, so if we’re able to go to the playoffs, that city is going to go crazy. They’ve been starved from it for so long on a football aspect, it’s going to be nuts.”