Foundation News

Justin Griffith hosts Angel Way Football Camp for Simpson County children

Two days of heat, sweat, football, and of course the big daddy of all prizes took place on Trojan Field last weekend.

Justin Griffith once again hosted his Football Camp to Simpson County children for the second year.
This is Justin’s fourth year hosting a football camp, but only his second in the area he grew up in.

“I just wanted to give back to the community and get a chance for the kids to know a person from their own community play some football and teach them some of the moves we do in the NFL,” commented Justin.

The football camp program was started by Richie Hughes, of Atlanta, Georgia, and the program was an inspiration by Justin back when he played for the Atlanta Falcons.

Since then, Richie and Justin host at least four football camps per year. Coaches from all over Simpson County, as well as several from Atlanta that Richie brought down with him, gathered to help out with the planning and teaching of each individual this year. Group by group, each coach helped with the kids achieve their two main goals, cooperation and caring.

On day one, the children learned all about cooperation, defined as ‘working together’ for the campers. The children also learned a Bible verse to  memorize and keep in their hearts. Ecclesiastes 4:9 says that two people are better than one because together they have a good reward and to the children who learned that, their good reward come the next day. On day two, the children learned about caring, not only for themselves, but for other people. Justin told the children that by caring, you focus on other people before you focus on yourself.

Again, the children learned a Bible passage to help reinstate what they are learning as a person and on the field. The other main issue the children learned this year was respect. Every person was equal on and off the field. “Just because this person is bigger or stronger than you, doesn’t mean they are higher or better than you,” Justin told each child during their morning warmup.

During both days of the football camp, children learned a couple of moves and positions that Just has used while playing for the Falcons.

Day one was all about learning how to maneuver on the field and doing warmup exorcises. Day two was about catching the ball and tackling positions, with a focus on running backs and defense positions.

The football camps are hosted by local sponsors, Justin Griffith, Richie Hughes, and the NFL. About 120 children participated this year from Magee, Mendenhall, Puckett, Mt. Olive,  Raleigh, Mize and as far south as Tylertown.

This particular event is community sponsored and every child is encouraged to attend every year. Justin and richie expects to have between 150-200 children next summer.

“The kids are fun to be around,” commented Justin, “and it feels good to be back at home, the place I grew up and the people I know. It’s a wonderful opportunity anybody could have to just hang out with the kids and teach them about football.”

At the end of the second day of camp, a drawing was help for prizes ranging from IPods, to PlayStation 3.

The PS3 was the grand prize for two lucky kids that memorized and could recite to Justin what the word of the day was, the definition, and the Bible verse that was associated with each day and word. Every participant went home with at least a tee shirt.

Justin and Richie both hope to have a greater turnout with more prizes next summer.