Don Klein Brings QBIQ to Shore Regional

By Walter J. O’Neill, Jr.

L-to-R at Shore Regional High School, Tony Racioppi, Don Klein, Kenny Pickett, Chris Hixson and Anthony Tedesco.

West Long Branch – Don Klein, the newly appointed head football coach of the Shore Regional Blue Devils program, hosted the QBIQ football camp this past weekend at the high school. “I was very fortunate to be involved with such a prestigious company like QBIQ and the camp experience,” said Klein.

The camp is designed only for quarterbacks and receivers, with those attending the three-day training paying for the lessons.

Lead instructor and creator of QBIQ was Chris Hixson. With over 35 years’ experience at the quarterback position, Hixson is a renowned expert in teaching the technical and fundamentals of being a quarterback.

Hixson played his high school football in Washington State and finished his career with a 72% completion record. He then attended the University of Rhode Island where he broke and set school records with 8,574 throwing yards and was inducted into their Hall of Fame. Hixson was on the short list of several NFL teams, but played six years in the Arena Football League, where quarterbacks have to throw on almost every down.

“Having Chris Hixson and Tony Racioppi here providing their knowledge and skills to all the athletes who participated in the camp was huge,” said Klein. QBIQ is a national quarterback and wide receiver development camp that teaches “cheat codes” to the players which allows them to process information faster according to Klein. “QBIQ combines the classroom with the playing field to coach the minds of these players as well as aid in developing their fundamentals. We have some of the best coaches and instructors in the country involved with QBIQ and we received tremendous feedback on the product we put out across the country.”

There were over 100 football players at Shore Regional this weekend. They came from all over the country, and the Blue Devils had three players in the camp as well as assistant coaches helping out. There were youngsters from Pop Warner, AFL teams to high school stars working out.

Kenny Pickett, an Ocean Township and Pittsburgh alumni, and current quarterback on the Philadelphia Eagles, spoke to the players on Saturday morning. “Kenny is a great example of hard work and dedication to the position of quarterback,” said Klein, who coached Pickett at Ocean Township High School. “I look forward to bringing even more eyes onto our program through various development opportunities. In order four our program here at Shore Regional to grow and progress to the next level, our players need to be pushed outside of their comfort zone both mentally and physically.”

Racioppi, started his high school football career at Ocean Township High School and then transferred to Red Bank Regional. His senior year as a Buc, he was called the best quarterback in the state. He then attended Rowan University. His junior year he was given the job as starting quarterback, and threw for 3,097 yards and 40 touchdowns and ran for 290 yards and four touchdowns. Currently, he is one of the top quarterback coaches in the country. He is the personal coach to Pickett and 12 other NFL quarterbacks as well as 15 FBS starters.

“Besides Racioppi and Hixson, we also had Hilton Alexander teaching the wide receivers,” said Klein. Alexander is known as “Route King”. He played wide receiver for Morris Brown College and then with the San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans saints. “These coaches are the best in the industry and we had a great three says of training.”

It was impressive watching Hixson, Racioppi and Klein working with the quarterback. They worked heavily on technique, footwork and throwing fundamentals. One area that I was extremely impressed with was teaching quarterbacks how to quickly read the defensive schemes and how to make quick adjustments.

QBIQ had three camps scheduled; one in Atlanta, Las Vegas and at Shore Regional. Over the three days, they hold five classroom sessions, five walk through sessions and five practices.

Some of the coaches at the 2024 QBIQ football camp at Shore Regional, left-to-right, were Adam Clack, Joe Licata, Troy Pelletier, Hilton Alexander, Tony Racioppi, Chris Hixson, Don Klein, Mike Pina, Cody High and RJ Read.

Chris Hixson, lead instructor at QBIQ, teaches quarterbacks how to read different defensive schemes during the camp at Shore Regional.

Shore Regional High School head football coach Don Klein teaches young quarterbacks the proper footwork and focus during the weekend QBIQ camp.