Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Shelter From The Storm Notre Dame moves away from campus for first four practices Notre Dame traveled 100 miles south of its campus to begin its 2013 fall camp in the secluded, distraction-free environment of Shiloh Park in Marion, Ind. The team's first four days of practice unfolded on the otherwise empty retreat campground before the Irish returned to South Bend. photo by Michael & Susan Bennett/Lighthouse Imaging By Lou Somogyi fter a tumultuous seven months from January through July, the Notre Dame football program needed some form of refuge. It might have found it when the first four days of 2013 training camp, Aug. 5‑8, were held in Shiloh Park Retreat and Conference Center in Marion, Ind. The facility is about 100 miles south of the Notre Dame campus. Preparations for this move actually had been planned well over a year ago, and the timing and logistics worked out as it came to fruition this August. Since the start of January, Notre Dame's "Dream Regular Season" of 2012 had been followed by turmoil, from head coach Brian Kelly's inter‑ view with the Philadelphia Eagles, to former All-American linebacker Manti Te'o's pseudo girlfriend, to starting quarterback Everett Golson's ineligi‑ bility, to five-star defensive end recruit Eddie Vanderdoes reneging on his signed National Letter of Intent … The Retreat Center provided a form of sanctuary. No media, no cell phones or Internet, no technology, no academ‑ ics … just football, recreational activity and team bonding. "Training camp is vital in terms of developing team unity, character, ca‑ maraderie and ultimately a focused and specific identity for the upcoming season," Kelly said. "We instituted a