With football practice a few weeks away, a young quarterback at Willamette High School, 15-year-old Spencer Phillips, spent an hour the other day working on the mechanics of his position.

On the warm afternoon, Phillips wasn't alone.

As Phillips went through his steps and throws, he did so with Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon watching every move, offering suggestions, showing him the right way.

And as one of Phillips' teammates, wide receiver Cody Wirth, worked on his pass-catching skills, he did so with the coaching help of Dixon's roommate, Oregon wide receiver Garren Strong.

In different sports, and other settings, scenes like that played out throughout Eugene over the past week and the past year, as Oregon athletes including Malik Hairston, Aaron Brooks, Kristen Forristall, Nicole Garbin and others have provided coaching and mentoring to boys and girls from elementary school through high school, either one-on-one or in groups of no more than three.

For the Oregon athletes, it's not simply a labor of love. In an innovative new business founded by a graduate of the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, it's also a job, paying the athletes $20 per session for their coaching services.

"The money wasn't really a big thing," Strong noted. "It was more just going out and helping. I know when I was younger, if I could have someone go out and help me, I would take the opportunity to do it."

The business - a natural in a community in which Oregon athletes are adored by kids, and in an era in which parents are increasingly willing to invest in private coaching, sports clubs or camps for their children - is called CHAMP, the College Hero Athletic Mentoring Program, and is the inspiration of Billy McKnight, former graduate manager for the UO men's basketball team.

McKnight, who got the idea while working with the basketball program, developed it in a class project while earning his master's degree in business administration.

"It's really helping everybody out," McKnight said. "It's helping the young kids, because they're working with their heroes, and the athletes enjoy it, because it's a way for them to get out in the community and be an influence on more of a personal scale. And it's a job for them, and I can pay them for it."

The rates vary from $40 to $50 for an hourlong private session, and from $30 to $35 for group lessons, depending on the number of lessons purchased.

The program isn't officially endorsed by the university, or affiliated with it, but McKnight had detailed meetings with Bill Clever, the assistant athletic director in charge of compliance, when he established the business last year.

"The NCAA rules involving student-athlete employment and their involvement in private lessons have loosened up considerably over the last several years, and I think those changes allowed this business plan to be permissible," Clever said.

"We had several pieces of correspondence back and forth between us and the Pac-10, making sure we crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's, and Billy's been very good about keeping in touch and asking questions. He's very cognizant that for this to work, not only for him but for the student-athletes and the kids, we need to make sure NCAA rules are met, and he's done a really good job of doing that."

The key restrictions:

• By NCAA rules, athletes must be paid the going rate in the community based on their coaching experience. A more prominent athlete, such as Hairston or Dixon, can't be paid a greater rate than a lesser-known teammate because of fame.

• The business can't market the name or likeness of student-athletes with remaining eligibility, although Clever said it's permissible to make a general statement that UO athletes are involved as coaches. In promotional material, CHAMP uses former UO athletes like Anthony Trucks, Brandi Davis and Brandon Lincoln.

• Lessons can't take place on UO premises. Workouts are held at various public fields or even at private homes, and McKnight has business arrangements with both Willow Creek and Grand Slam for indoor workouts.

• Clients don't pay athletes directly; payments are made to the business, and McKnight requires athletes to fill out a report on each session, which becomes their time card.

For the UO athletes, whose busy schedules often preclude a regular job, the program offers the chance to make a little money, with flexible hours, over the summer or in their off-season. For the kids who participate, McKnight sees the business as offering more individualized attention than a larger camp, and a special kind of coaching experience.

"The college athletes can take the kids through the workouts they did when they were younger, and the workouts that they do now and have learned from college coaches," McKnight said.

"And the great thing about the college athletes is that they're going through the same things the kids are going through. They've got coaches that they're dealing with, they've got parents, they've got school. ... I'm always talking to them about getting to know the kids, and know what they're going through. It's almost like a big brother program at the same time."

In selecting the UO athletes, McKnight said, he's very cognizant of the mentoring role they'll play, and seeks the recommendations of coaches about athletes who would be the best role models. There's no formal background check, he said.

Lincoln, who has coached with several kids over the spring and summer and worked with McKnight in an internship, noted that in addition to allowing young athletes to learn skills, the program allows them to view college athletes in a different light.

"It allows kids to see that a college athlete isn't just an icon," Lincoln said. "A lot of times, college athletes are awarded star-status type roles when they're just regular people going to school and they play a particular sport."

As he worked with Dixon the other day, in their sixth session together, Willamette's Phillips said he's definitely improved and developed a better feel for the quarterback position. Beyond that, he said, he's been most surprised by "how laid back they are. People say, `College players, why would they want to come out with us,' but they're really nice. It's cool."

In its first year, McKnight said, CHAMP provided workouts for 40 kids, of whom 36 are still actively involved, matching them with about 14 Oregon athletes, across the range of sports as well as cheerleading.

Response has been so encouraging, by both clients and UO athletes, that McKnight hopes to start similar programs at Cal and Stanford, and perhaps UCLA and Southern California.

"It's almost like being a coach," Dixon said. "I think if football doesn't work out, I would like to do something like this."