During the summer months when youth services are needed most, it seems the needed resources are a little more scarce and harder to come by. Budget cuts, layoffs and cutbacks have been at an all-time high and the ones most affected by the shortfalls are the youth. If the kids are our most precious resource, why is it that they are the first the powers that be seem to take from?

This summer, like so many other past summers, the area youth were without many resources that were once taken for granted. However, lately a number of youth non-profit organizations and other athletic groups have provided the area youth a means to participate in positive activities by hosting summer youth football camps.

Former Los Angeles Raider running back Greg Bell recently hosted his third annual Athletes for Life (AFL) Summer Youth Football Camp on the campus of Cal State, San Bernardino. Bell’s camp is one of the few held on a college campus and gives the young participants an opportunity to spend the night during the four-day camp.

Because of the AFL Youth Football Camp about 200 youth from all across the Inland Empire had an opportunity to mingle with former NFL stars, college coaches and their peers while hanging out on a college campus. During the camp even the former NFL stars lived in the dorms with the young campers and participated in a movie night and took part in a few practical jokes. The youth were also exposed to real life college classroom settings with a college professor; they had math and English class tutoring sessions on a daily basis, and were exposed to a number of different type of speakers.

During the summer months the AFL Youth Football Camp isn’t the only camp available for the area youth, but it is the only one that offers the campers an opportunity to stay overnight for consecutive days. However, other youth football camps are available: the Chris Hayes Drills and Skills Youth Football Camp, The Legends by Lang Youth Football Camp and the Chris Claiborne Football Camp. All the camps’ hosts and founders are former NFL football players and they are all former Inland Empire residents who feel the need to give back to the area in which they received their start.

Hayes, of the Chris Hayes football camp, was a standout athlete at San Gorgonio High School. He played college football at Washington State, and was a second round draft pick of the New Jets. Hayes was traded to the Green Bay Packers his rookie year, and he made a key play for the Packers while on special teams to secure a Super Bowl victory. The Legends of Lang camp is named in honor of the late David Lang, a standout athlete from Eisenhower High School. Lang was drafted by the then Los Angeles Rams, but was later traded to the Dallas Cowboys. During his stint with the Cowboys, Lang was the special team’s captain and was the back-up running back to Emit Smith, the all-time NFL leading rusher. During his five years as a Dallas Cowboy, Lang won a Super Bowl ring, but made several appearances in the NFL playoffs. Chris Claiborne was a standout athlete from Riverside North High School. Claiborne went on to be a standout player at USC, and was later drafted by the Minnesota Vikings late in the first round. Claiborne, just like Hayes and Lang, had a stellar NFL career that was unfortunately cut short due to injuries. Nevertheless, because of their love for the game and their love for the area where it all started for them they come back year in and year out to help the area kids improve their football skills.

However, the camps aren’t just about football, they just provides a base. During the course of the football camps, they all take time out to have speakers talk about education, safety, life choices and a number of other topics that affect today’s young population. The AFL Youth Football Camp is able to provide a little more of the education component because it’s an overnight camp that lasts for four days.

“I think having overnight is more effective for a number of reason. It gives the mentors and youth more time to bond and get to know one another; it gets the youth out of their current environment and into a more positive environment and around positive people, and it will give the youth an opportunity to visit a college campus and for many of the camp participants this is their first time on a college campus,” said coach Mike Powell, a director and counselor for the AFL Youth Football Camp.

This year the AFL Camp was only able to serve 200 youth because funding was down due to the current financial market. In the past the camp would average close to 300 to 350 youth, who would take up residence in dorms at Cal State, San Bernardino. Another good thing about the AFL Youth Football Camp is that it is free to all the participants. Even though the numbers were down because of funding, services were not cut.

In addition to hanging out with, and getting coaching from, former NFL players and college coaches the kids were able to sit in college classrooms and get tutoring from college professors, receive mentoring from college student-athletes and hear speaker cover a number of useful topics. Some of the former NFL players who were in attendance at the 3rd annual AFL Youth Football Camp included James Washington, Dallas Cowboys; Duval Love, St. Louis Rams; Mike Sherrard, San Francisco 49ers/New York Giants; Leonard Russell, New England Patriots/San Diego Chargers; Roman Phiefer, St. Louis Rams/Detroit Lions, and Skip Hicks, Washington Redskin.

During the entire camp experience the former NFL stars were with the youth. They had breakfast, lunch and dinner together and they even attended most of the educational sessions with the youth. In addition to math and English tutoring, the campers attended an SAT Prep course, as well as a number of lectures about college admission, financial aid, and safety lecture on how to avoid gangs and gang violence and choice about drugs. The safety lecture was given by San Bernardino County Sheriff Rod Hoops.

AFL founder Greg Bell and his San Bernardino staff have already started working on next year’s camp to ensure that it has continued success.

“It’s very important we get an early start on securing funding, speakers and other resources because many of our corporate sponsors have been feeling a crunch during these current financially difficult times. However, we can’t let that stops us from doing such a great service for the youth,” concluded Powell.