Over the weekend Dart participated in the CYFL/Mizzou Youth Football Camp. It is a huge event that seems to get bigger every year. The first year(2008) they held it the attendance was right around 275. This weekend 500!! There were families from Georgia and Texas there.
On Saturday evening the local high school coaches along with CYFL coaches run the camp. The boys get to eat pizza and drink Gatorade in the Tiger Club while watching highlights from the previous seasons games. I don't even want to think about the number of pizzas ordered to feed them all. They pair the boys up and each pair gets a box of pizza, plus all the adults get a pizza. Domino's probably loves that order! When camp is winding down that night the director calls all the parents down to line up on the hashmarks on the field and then each grade level gets to run on the field from the game day locker room just like the real players do. Talk about a thrill for the boys. Dart still gets excited about it after 3 years.
My view at dinner Saturday night!
Sunday is "THE DAY". Camp is run by current Mizzou players. In past years we have met guys like Jeremy Maclin(Philadelphia Eagles), Sean Wheatherspoon(Atlanta Falcons), Chase Coffman(Bengals), and Danario Alexander(undrafted which I am still trying to understand how that happened). This year the big guys were Derrick Washington and Wes Kemp. I follow Derrick Washington on Twitter and he and Kim English(Guard for Mizzou Men's Basketball team) are always arguing over who the real #24 is at MU(they both wear 24). Dart asked Derrick who the real 24 was and after he laughed a bit he said "You know Kimmie is". Later that day he even Tweeted about it, which had Dart walking on air for the rest of the day.
Dart, Derrick Washington and a friend of ours, Josh!
It amazes me the amount of players that come out each year. This year we had 20 MU players out to help. I think they have as much fun, if not more fun than the campers do. It is so nice to see these guys giving up their Sunday morning to come out and coach 500 kids age Kindergarten-8th grade. Camp on Sunday begins at 8:00 and goes until after noon. They run drills with the boys and a girl this year, take them on a tour of the facilities including weight room, meeting rooms, and locker room, then come back to the field for the kids' favorite part...autographs. The campers are given t-shirts and posters for the players to sign. The posters this year were really cool. You can always tell who the big player is because his line crosses the entire field.
Wes Kemp #8 signing Dart's poster!
As we were leaving I was telling a few of the players we passed thanks for coming and doing this and everyone of them thanked me for bringing my son out and told me they had a blast and look forward to doing it. These guys could easily spend Sunday sleeping in or doing anything other than being mobbed by 500 boys and a girl. So to the 20 players who gave up sleep thank you for understanding your job as a role model. Please remember you now have 500 more young fans looking up to you and watching what you do.
