Too often athletes at the professional and college level make poor choices and selfish decisions, so it is refreshing to hear of athletes making the choice to give back. Recently, a group of football athletes made up of current high school and college players opted to donate their time and talent putting on a one day football camp for 7 to 13 year old footballers from inner city Denver.
The most prominent player working as a coach at the camp was former Denver Montbello star and current University of Oregon receiver Drew Davis. Along with Davis, Marcus Tanello and multiple Denver East athletes including Ezekiel Bishop and Isaiah Hendricks shared their experience with the future athletes.
The goal of the camp was to give young player the opportunity to work on their football and life skills with a group of players they could look up to. According to camp organizer Narcy Jackson of Athletics and Beyond, the camp had the goals of, “creating character, teaching football and showing the young campers positive role models from backgrounds similar to their own.” Jackson also talked about how important it was for the young coaches at the clinic to understand the importance and responsibility of giving back to the community.
Although fun, the camp was hard work as each participant suited up with helmet and should pads and got after it. In fact, many of the young coaches were surprised at the energy the campers brought to the event.
The camp took on a grassroots feel as multiple sources lent a hand with money and time, making sure the campers were able to go to the camp for free. Board members from Athletics and Beyond provided logistics, T-shirts and Gatorade. Sam’s Club supplied the food and Church in the City had water and ice available for the campers. In support of the educational aspect of the camp, Half Price Books had free age appropriate books for each camper.
Beyond the skills learned on the field, the coaches and campers learned the importance of hard work as well as how far a little donated time can go to helping the next generation of players.