Metro Index Football Camp
By Tony DeFazio

Tom Donohoe was pretty sure it would work.

Five hundred high school football players, 50 high school coaches, dozens of college coaches, eight days, state-of-the-art practice fields, Gus Ferrotte, Lavar Arrington and Tyler Palko.

And Donohoe was only "pretty sure" that this "might work."

"We weren't sure how it would be received," said Donohoe from his office in Buffalo, where he serves as president and general manager of the Bills. "I remember describing the idea to Joe Butler in the stands at a WPIAL football game and asking him if he thought there was any way it would catch on."

The former Steelers' general manager and Seton-LaSalle coach is recalling how the idea for the Metro Index football camp came about. Donohoe was coaching at Seton-LaSalle and just starting to get his foot in the NFL's door with his involvement as a scout for Blesto Scouting Services. He thought some of Blesto's method of operation might also work on a high school level.

He mentioned it to Butler, who at the time was running a fledgling basketball scouting service while also serving as an assistant on Donohoe's staff. Butler asked Donohoe if he thought it would work.

"Yeah, it might work," Donohoe said. "I'm pretty sure there'd be some interest."

Donohoe was correct. The first Metro Index football camp was held at Mount Lebanon High School in 1981 and featured about 40 kids. Donohoe set-up the program and ran the camp. Butler had the unenviable task of recruiting the kids to attend, something that has not changed.

Today, Joe Butler's Metro Index football camp is one of the most prestigious in the eastern part of the United States. Two, four-day sessions run back-to-back at the UPMC Sports Performance Complex in Pittsburgh's South Side. High school football players from all over the tri-state area attend the camp, and some from such locales as Erie, Philadelphia, and Michigan have attended in the past. College football coaches from literally all over the United States are there to evaluate the usually deep and talented crop of football players from western Pennsylvania. What's more, the camp takes place in May, which is a live-recruiting period for colleges, meaning they can visit players in person and offer scholarships.

"Any coach is foolish not to take advantage of this camp," says Donohoe. "It plays a very significant role in college football recruiting across the country."

The camp didn't start out that way. The original idea was to run a very low-key teaching camp for skill players – backs and receivers. Linemen were added the second year after a few showed up anyway the first year, and the transition was a success. The camp continued to get bigger and bigger, moving from Mount Lebanon to North Allegheny in an attempt to increase local awareness. Soon, the camp was taking place at Rooney Field on the Duquesne campus. This past May, Butler's camp was held at the state-of-the-art facilities at the UPMC Sports Performance Complex.

It's Fundamental

"Presenting a good teaching situation is my primary objective," said Butler, who, as the president and sole employee of Metro Index, also works year round as a basketball and football scout. "We work on fundamentals. The reason it is successful is because we are very organized and efficient – there is no one standing around not knowing what they are doing. The program that Tom Donohue set up 21 years ago still carries over today."

Another reason for the success of the camps is what Butler alluded to earlier – the fact that he teaches fundamentals.

"That's what any coach looks for – basic fundamentals," said former Bethany College Coach Steve Campos. "The speed and physical attributes are obviously great, but they mean nothing if the kid can't play football."

Butler has adopted the same philosophy, using the camp to stress the fundamentals of the game rather than to push the sexier 40 times, vertical jumps, and bench presses. He feels his camp offers high school kids better opportunities than combines that focus solely on running and lifting.

"A lot of high school kids aren't ready for something like that," he explains. "I'm not saying those camps are bad, but they can hurt a kid rather than help him. If he runs a slower time than usual, or has an off-day, it puts a bad label on a kid."

Butler would rather take advantage of the many top-notch high school coaches who are teachers at his camp. They instruct the players on the fundamentals – back pedaling for defensive backs, throwing motion for QBs, proper use and positioning of the hands for receivers, stance and starts for lineman, etc.

"Some kids have great football skills but not great speed or workout numbers – they are football players, pure and simple, not track athletes, and the college coaches can see that at our camp," he said. "Some of these people are so caught up on a kid's 40 time or his vertical jump, that they push the football skills to the back. A 40 time and a vertical jump are important, but they are not a barometer for everything."

A Work In Progress

Metro Index is a recruiting/scouting service that supplies names of football and basketball prospects to colleges. The players themselves pay nothing – college athletic departments subscribe to his scouting service. In addition to the camp, Butler is a scout of local football and basketball talent. His office is filled with videotapes with last names and dates scrawled across the labels. At least four VCRs are visible beneath the mountain of tapes and scouting reports. The phone rings constantly. First, an assistant from Maryland has a question about a local defensive back prospect; moments later, a parent wants to know why his son isn't being recruited harder; next, a Kansas assistant wants to confirm a kid's height and weight; soon, a high school coach calls with another question.

Metro Index is one of the few scouting services that does both football and basketball scouting. Butler stopped his annual basketball camp after more than 20 years in 1998. The prominence of AAU basketball, plus the highly competitive nature of the business hurt the basketball camp, although he still continues to scout nationwide for basketball. The football scouting is limited to western Pennsylvania – from State College to Sharon, Erie to Uniontown.

Colgate assistant basketball coach Kevin Curley has attended Butler's basketball camps in the past.

"It's a real time-saver," Curley said. "You knew that Metro Index would have the top players at their camps, so it's a way to sort of recruit one geographic area in one fell swoop. He knows the players, he knows their abilities, he knows what they do well, and what they don't do so well."

Getting the top players to his camps is another challenge for Butler's one-man show.

"I am always trying to get the best kids to come to the camp, so I guess I am a recruiter too," he says.

Maintaining a neutral stance is another aspect of Butler's job.

"I cannot have any bias at all, I have to stay neutral," says Butler. "If a kid or a parent will ask me about a certain school or a certain coach, I can give them my opinion. But that's just an opinion. I don't want to get involved in that aspect. I'll never tell a kid where to go to school, because that's not my decision to make. It's a four-year period of your life – that has to be all the kid and the family's decision."

Butler really stresses the chance for coaches to see the kids up close at the camp. Rather than watching a Friday night high school game from the stands, a coach can stand five feet away and see the particular player work out. The full effect from watching up-close is a major benefit over film or in some cases, even a live game.

Over the course of the camp's 21 years, Butler has influenced or affected the futures of literally thousands of local high school athletes. Yet, most people in the area hear "Metro Index" and think it has something to do with the New York Stock Exchange.

"That's Joe's decision," says Donohoe, "it's just the way he is. He's always done a great job promoting the athletes in western Pennsylvania. I'm always amazed at the growth of the camp. It's really grown by leaps and bounds. The opportunities there are tremendous for the athletes as well as the coaches. It was a lot of fun – I wish I had the time to do it again."