By Troy Vincent
NFL Player Engagement
Our Prep programs finished a fulfilling season earlier this summer when we hosted America’s elite all-star student-athletes with two leadership-based events, one with an on-field focus and the other set in the classroom.
In Cleveland, our Prep 100 Series Presented by Under Armour came to a close with the top performers from our first four cities teaming up with Ohio stars for a football and leadership skills camp.
By any standard, our first year of staging the Prep 100 Series was a resounding success with more than 500 student-athletes attending four weekend events since January in New Orleans, Miami, Houston, and Baltimore.
The best of this lot was brought to Northern Ohio in late June, and were rewarded by being on-site for the beginning of our annual Rookie Symposium, a perfect visual for the 120 or so young adults to see the newest NFL players, knowing that could be them in just a few short years.
For the 120 or so participants, most from Ohio and the others being the previous Series participants representing 20 states, they set up shop at the Cleveland Browns Training Center.
Their teachers included former NFL players and coaches drawing upon their experience to convey the value of reaching their potential both on and the field, including sessions on goal-setting, decision-making, proper social media protocol, and social etiquette.
To maximize their experience, we worked with a number of premier organizations, such as VTO Sports to help stage the Series, Aptus Discovery to administer assessments, the NCAA to advise the student-athletes on college transition, and the Officiating Academy to talk about gridiron rules and career opportunities in their profession.
When not taking notes on the above offerings, the boys got their football fix through drills focused on techniques and broken down by position, featuring a variety of competitions, complemented with chalk talks and instruction.
In Philadelphia, our NFL-Wharton Prep Leadership Program brought together 36 of the top academic & athletic achievers for a concentrated leadership training course.
These exceptional boys and girls stayed at The University of Pennsylvania, and fittingly faced a finals week format filled with a curriculum that taught motivation, professional and career development on topics including public speaking and social media, networking and negotiations, and management & financial courses.
The faculty was comprised of Wharton professors and its Sports Business Initiative officials teaming with personnel from our League and Player Engagement, who were supplemented with panels that featured representatives from the Villanova and Temple football and basketball programs, as well as Spencer Tillman from CBS Sports and James Harris from the Philadelphia Eagles.
All charged with showing these attendees how to balance academics and athletics, following their selection to the event based on their undergraduate grades and standardized testing scores, letters of recommendation, student essays and athletic achievement records.
So with this successful season in the books, we are now already knee-deep into football season with the traditional August training camps underway and the opening kickoffs right around the corner.