CONVERSE, Texas – While a speaker system blared music in one corner of D. W. Rutledge Stadium, former Judson High School teammates and now NFL players banded together to put on a youth football camp.
Las Vegas Raiders running back Sincere McCormick, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end DeMarvin Leal, Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Rashad Wisdom, and childhood friend and former UTSA quarterback Frank Harris made an appearance at the camp.
McCormick was inspired by other San Antonio-native NFL players who have put on their own camps over the years and decided to hold his where his football career started.
Now that McCormick is going into his third season with the Las Vegas Raiders, he wants to give back to the community that helped him get there.
But this camp isn’t like others. McCormick told KSAT that they had no intention of going easy on the campers.
“Oh, we going to put in some work now,” said McCormick. “We’ll have them, you know, running around doing what they got to do, and it’s going to be exciting just to coach the kids, and sometimes a lot of kids don’t get this opportunity to be around, you know, NFL football players. But we want to give back and have them go through the drills and be sweaty and tired like we do.”
“I just love giving back, and they’re doing a great job giving back to the community where we grew up at, so there’s nothing better than that,” said Harris.
The community aspect of holding camps like this one is what attracted McCormick to the idea. He brought his high school and UTSA communities together to pass down wisdom and love for the game of football.
“It’s really cool because I get the chance to have both communities from one side of the town to the other side of San Antonio be together, merge together, have the kids come out and have fun, enjoyed themselves and, you know, ultimately have a great time, have the NFL experience,” said McCormick.
“It’s kind of like, full circle moment to be able to come back here to the high school that we all played and graduated from in the city that we’re all from and give back to the kids,” said Wisdom. “You know, the same way that people gave back to us when we were coming up.”
McCormick, DeMarvin, and Rashad will all head off to their respective NFL training camps by the end of next week.