When we all got in on Friday, you know my first stop was over to Bren's house! Had to see my favorite person in the world!
Friday evening, we hosted a meet and greet at my mom's house for all of the people who decided to volunteer to assist my efforts. I had a good time meeting some coaches in the area and listening to them share old stories about my coach Brooks. He sure is a legend in this track game.I knew it was suppose to be kind of chilly in Denver, but I really wasn't ready for what awaited us on Saturday when I got up to get ready for the camp.
It was a blanket of snow and ice out! The rental car had no ice scraper in it, so me and McLean were outside for about 15 minutes with hotel key cards trying to scrape the ice off the windows of the car. That was pure hell! Ask me where Kenta was at during this process and the answer would be, inside the lobby drinking coffee.
I am glad that my mom and Harold were forward thinking because they reserved the football field as well as the gym in case of inclement weather. We had about 50 plus kids pre-registered for the event, but I was pretty worried about if anyone would show due to the weather!
It was great to be back at my old high school, Denver East and I am appreciative that they allowed me to use their facilities to put on my camp as well. It felt weird looking at my old dressing area in the football locker room and being back in the gym, a place I hadn't seen since 2000.
We got to the school about an hour early to set up and get everything together for when everybody started to arrive.
Even though the weather wasn't favorable, we still had about 30 kids and 12 volunteers out at the site. The kids were very attentive and really eager to learn some new stuff and listen to what it is all of us had to say to them.
Harold took the kids through an informative dynamic warm up session and walked them through it step by step so that they could really understand what they were doing and why they were doing it.After the warm up, we got right in to basic running mechanics and form. After the kids got a grasp on the technical aspects, they broke in to different groups and headed over to the stations that were set up. We had two different ladder drills, square cone drill, straight line cone drill, jump rope etc.
Legendary high school coach Don Gatewood came out and really took a hands on approach with the kids. He is in the Colorado High School Hall of Fame and in the USA Track and Field hall of fame as well. It was a great pleasure having someone of his stature come out and lend a hand to the efforts.
My best friend Kelvin Doyle, a former Michigan State football player took the kids through the cone drills working on their agility.
Kenta got the kids bounding better than they ever had! After his instruction, you could see the kids really grasp the concepts he was presenting to them.
You know I hopped in and got the kids working on their arm action. Once you get the arms together, then everything else falls in to place.
My sister came by and lent a hand watching over the babies.
After we ended, the kids all received an autographed picture, camp t-shirt and camp water bottle. Big thanks to Randy, Rich and McLean for the design and product.I really wanted to do something for the community that helped me reach the level of accomplishment I have so far. It is really important that you give something back to the community. Hosting this camp offered me a great reflection point on my life. I really understand how the kids look up to me so much and would love to accomplish the things I have and do the things that I have done. I may take going over to Europe summer after summer for granted for instance, but it means the world to the little ones. I never really realize it until I actually got with them this weekend. Being a positive black male role model in the area is something that I look forward to. I spoke to them as a group and really let them know the importance of getting their education and going to college, which to me, is one of the most important things you can do in life.
To try to help them with that goal, I am starting a scholarship fund to assist in their efforts to attend college. It will start out as something small, just providing book scholarships to kids this spring/summer, but I hope to grow that as well in the future.
I had such a blast putting on this camp! It couldn't have possibly went off as smooth as it did without Harold and my mom at the forefront getting the information out to all the people that needed it.
A real big thanks to Coach Gatewood, Coach Vaden, Chris Turner, Gary, Kellen, Farley and Cameron Burl, George Crunkelton, Yolanda, Justin and Steve Johnson, Annette Tannander and Carl McKinley for coming out and helping me put on this wonderful event. I can't wait until next year to do it even digger and better!
6 comments:
It looks like your camp went well despite the bad weather. It is extremely important that you are a positive role model for the kids to look up to because we don't have many positive role models these days for kids to look up to. Too many athletes are too selfish and self-centered to be positive roles models these days! There are some real true positive role model pro athletes these days but they are few and far between! The kids need to learn about treating people with respect, and not being selfish and self-centered, but they imitate what they see from many of their pro sports athletes in their 20's today who don't respect people and are selfish and self-centered. I'm glad you are emphasizibg the importance of a good education to these kids, but I hope you stressed the importance to them about doing things the right way in life. I know if I was talking to these kids, I would be stressing big time the importance of doing things the right way in life. I am counting on you,David, to be 1 of the few real true role model pro athletes. Don't let me down! It is easy to take everything for granted! These kids count on you, David, to be their hercules hurdling hero, and the future of this country depends on and needs positive role models! Your blog father has spoken!
Now,how could you not know about the cold and snow! You got to be prepared! It always amazes me these days how many people are not prepared or just ignore simple things like weather conditions. It makes me and Coach E shake our heads. I'm old school and Coach E is super old school while you young guys are new school and just don't have a clue sometimes! You think scraping with that hotel card was difficult! Well, try having a hand, arm, and fingers from dystonia that makes doing everything like the simple task of scraping hell everyday! Be glad you guys have healthy hands, arms, and fingers to scrape! Coach E is about to smack you guys on the OOM-PA-PA with his baton for complaining about not having a scraper. You should have gone to some store in the area the night before and bought a scraper! Again, it's about being prepared! I'm gonna have to get you guys EJHEAT prepared rollaway beds at the hotel next time equipped with scrapers while you scrape the snow and ice with half your bodies on and off the bed and that includes you, Kenta! That will teach you guys a lesson! Coach E would have given you 1 of his diapers, and the Coach E body heat and all the other crap from those Coach E diapers would have certainly melted the ice and snow! I know that's a stinky way to do it, but the results would have smelled and looked sweet. Speaking of sweet, that E picture logo at your old high school sure looks like it could be the logo for Coach E. So angelic, but somewhere in the E is a track baton ready to get everyone moving their OOM-PA-PA on the track! Coach E demands respect and gets it old school style! That's the bottom line because role model me and R-E S P-E-C-T Coach E said so!!!!
Eric
Hey David, sent an "email" but not sure it transmitted. Anyway, seeing pictures of the East High gym brought back memories even though I'm not sure that particular gym was there when I attended East. You mentioned Don Gatewood. I go way back with him. In fact he came out of Manual High the same year my oldest brother did. He and Mr. Alex Burl had been very supportive of my Howard University recruiting efforts in Denver over the years. They helped me recruit a number of Denver track athletes accepted scholarships to run for Howard (Vincent Miller and Neal Madison to name a few). Don is a great coach and better citizen. Keep up the good work and email me.
I'm in love with D.O.
I don't care who knows
With his love for family
My infatution grows
I'm in love with D.O.
Yeaaaahhh.
(That's my cheer)
Hey EJ Heat, how ya be?!
Shout out to Michigan State
What a wonderful thing for you to do. It means so much to our youth. I'm so pleased to hear that your going to assist our college kids with purchasing books. If ever I came into some money that's what I wanted to do. So many of our children make it to college, but can't afford their books. I wanted to adopt a HBC and provide books for all the student that needed assistance. In return, I wanted them to pay it forward. Once they finished college and got on their feet I wanted them to adopt a school and pay it forward. I'm sure with your connections you would be able to get others to join you. We must support our positive youth. EJHEAT you are on point about to many selfish and self-centered athletes. Their are some good ones out there, but I don't think they get enough reconition. David, maybe you could talk to Joetta Clark Diggs, she is a very positive person like you. She is always working with the youth and providing them with scholarships, as well as lesson in life. I think she would be a perfect person to partner with. Keep up the good work and spreading the dream.
I like that post. That's a great thing you're doing. And your mom is cute!
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