Engagement Insider
CLEVELAND, OH July 17, 2013 – When you host a high school football tournament that featured former participants like Heisman Trophy Winner Cam Newton and Baltimore Raven World Champion Ray Rice, you are clearly a cut above.
That was the case once more during the past week in Cleveland when the NFL’s High School Player Development department (HSPD) teamed up again with the National Guard for the 7on7 National Tournament and Lineman Challenge.
In fact, this year’s event raised its game to an even higher level as NFL Player Engagement increased its involvement to lend its Prep expertise to the 500 or so attendees at the Cleveland Browns training facility.
“Both the NFL and the National Guard are targeting the same demographic in looking for the nation’s next young leaders,” said NFLPE Senior Vice President Troy Vincent.
“We have a deep appreciation for what the National Guard represents with their commitment to the local and national communities in the areas of altruism, so it’s only natural that we would work even more closely together on Prep programs to promote leadership through football.”
That means a lot of leaders are hearing the message, with 40,000 youths attending 180 multi-day camps in 46 states, according to Jerry Horowitz, the Director of NFL Youth Tackle Football.
“The program has skyrocketed as a result of our cross-departmental alliance with Player Engagement,” said Horowitz, adding, “and the National Guard is extremely excited about adding NFLPE’s innovative ideas on youth leadership development to what we have already built together through the years.”
What they have built together beginning in 2004, the year Newton attended, is a Life Skills Character Development program where the kids play the game, but the focus is on education, which Horowitz says “defines you as a human being.”
It started with a few NFL teams hosting events and grew to all 32 NFL teams staging camps, ultimately leading to the first national championship tournament last year in Indianapolis for the 7on7 participants. The same growth model is planned for the Lineman Challenge, which is already underway with eight NFL teams participating.
The goal for both is the same, as articulated by former All-Pro Vincent.
“Changing the culture of football is directly tied to the development of the high school student-athlete,” he stated, adding that this is the right age to present the NFL and National Guard ideologies on leadership to help shape the ideas and thoughts of the participating youngsters.
To take it even a step further, Horowitz emphasized how this program provides a community service component, where the camp participants interact with special needs children and work at a food bank.
But when not busy with these meaningful activities and of course the round-robin single elimination tournament itself, the participants were treated to a plethora of compelling speakers.
The event kicked off with NFL Legend Billy “White Shoes Johnson talking at the Welcome Dinner and closed a few days later with Ohio National Guard Brigadier General John Harris mesmerizing the audience with stories of how core military values come to the forefront under fire in war zones like Afghanistan.
As Horowitz aptly put it, “With speakers like General Harris reinforcing the National Guard’s philosophy, we couldn’t ask for a better sponsor of this program.”
And that’s not all.
In between this pair of speakers, the teen-agers heard from NFLPE Ambassadors Irving Fryar, Tony Stewart, Luther Elliss, Pete Mitchell, and Antonio Freeman, with Freeman and Chris Draft later speaking separately to the Lineman Challenge participants.
Their message was the same one that Vincent has delivered often.
“We tell these kids that their financial future is likely not in the NFL or other professional sports, but rather it is in their education, which is exactly what the National Guard professes as well.”
The perfect message at the perfect time for participants, and delivered in the perfect setting of Ohio, the birthplace of football and a long-time powerhouse on the high school gridiron scene.
Related Resource:
http://hsmaryland.scout.com/