Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME Click here to listen to the complete interview. ▼ John N. Buxton became Culver Academies' 12th Head of Schools on July 1, 1999. The Culver Academies are a group of elite college preparatory boarding schools and summer camps located in Culver, Ind. They are composed of three entities: Culver Military Academy for boys, Culver Girls Academy, and the Culver Summer Schools and Camps. The University of Notre Dame football team opened its 2014 training camp at Culver Academies where it went through the acclimatization portion. The team conducted five practices on site before transitioning to its customary LaBar Football Practice Fields. Blue & Gold Illustrated: What are your ties to Brian Kelly? Buxton: "Coach Kelly was introduced to Culver by a member of the board, Mike Wilcox, who has worked with coaches from all over the Midwest. Coach Kelly enrolled his three kids for the summer programs, and I think he began to understand very quickly that Culver was an important organization, especially given the long-term ties with Notre Dame football." Blue & Gold Illustrated: How did you and Coach Kelly make the connection for having the football team start training camp at Culver this summer? Buxton: "I imagine Coach Kelly may have raised the question with one or two people a year ago. We just agreed it would be a really good partnership. We had a little bit of work we had to do here like [installing] a turf field. "Notre Dame has been here three times before — once with [Knute] Rockne and twice with Lou Holtz [in 1995 and 1996], so we knew it could work." Blue & Gold Illustrated: Why did Coach Kelly want to do the camp at Culver? Buxton: "He was excited about the classroom availability and the size of the dining hall, since it could feed his whole team. And for the fact that when he came to Culver, people were respectful of his privacy. He said that when he is down to see his kids, people will ride by on a golf cart and say, 'Hey, Coach Kelly,' and just keep going. "Coach Kelly really was the driving force. He wanted something far enough away to get the kids' minds off Notre Dame, and the same time it's close enough to get back and forth easily." Blue & Gold Illustrated: What special accommodations did you need to make? Buxton: "For the most part, we have very good facilities, so it wasn't a lot. It was just organizing which meeting rooms they were going to be in at what time. We don't have air conditioning in the dorm rooms, so Five Questions With … CULVER ACADEMIES HEAD OF SCHOOLS JOHN BUXTON Buxton has served as the Head of Schools for Culver Academies since 1999. PHOTO COURTESY CULVER ACADEMIES