On a Gulf Coast morning where the temperature and humidity held a contest to see which could reach the more oppressive number, AJ McCarron threw pass after pass at Mobile Christian School’s Harrison Field on Saturday.
One of the throws at the former Alabama All-American’s seventh annual youth football camp left a particular impression, McCarron recalled with sweat still dripping from his nose in the brief break between the on-the-field work and a question-and-answer session with the youngsters in the school gym.
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“For some reason, I remember this kid today specifically that dropped maybe eight passes in a row,” McCarron said, “and he finally catches the ninth one, and the smile that he had on his face was just unbelievable, and that’s what it’s about.
“The game is in its purest point when they’re this age and they’re out here having fun. Once you get past this age, even high school now, college especially, it’s a business, so it’s not for just pure love and love of the game, so it’s awesome to see that in these kids.”
The final tally for the camp workout of McCarron’s right arm came to “a lot” of passes, in the quarterback’s estimation, but he met his goal of having every participant at his seventh annual youth football camp catch a football thrown by a pro quarterback. Some of the passes were zipped to teens running routes while others were soft-tossed into the breadbaskets of younger campers with their arms outstretched.
“I think it’s only fair,” McCarron said about his determination to have each camper catch a football he’s thrown. “We got people from all over that come down here. I know we’ve had people from California, South Dakota, up north. It’s only right. For people to spend their hard-earned money to come down here and have this experience, I feel it’s the right thing to do.”
The camp is free for participants, but there are only so many football players that can fit on the Leopards’ field at one time, even when some of them are the 5-year-old scatback size.
“I don’t know how many kids we ended up having,” said McCarron, who was a prep star at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile. “I know it was a lot. We had 600 sign up in the first two hours or so (via online registration) that took all the spots, and then we extended it to 650, 700, something like that, and then we had another 250 that were on the wait list as walkups. It’s the seventh year, and it’s been a very humbling, blessed experience, so, hopefully, we can do it for many years to come. …
“I think it’s only right to come back to the city that helped make you the person who you are and put on a camp that’s 100 percent free. I grew up in Mobile. I know what Mobile’s made of and the people it’s made of, being blue-collar, hard-working people, so if I have the opportunity not to charge any of these families or kids to come out here and have a great experience, learn a little bit about each position and the game of football and have fun, we’re going to do that.”
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McCarron’s camp makes a point during the signup period of emphasizing that all campers are welcome, and the on-the-field portion of Saturday’s camp ended with four special-needs campers running for touchdowns out of the Mobile Christian backfield against the Leopards’ defense.
“The majority of humans are blessed to wake up every day and do whatever we want and however we want to do it,” McCarron said. “Not everybody else is that blessed to do that, and that’s a big part of me. Seeing kids that have a disability get treated wrong and not have a fair shot at things, so it’s only right that they have their special moment and get to enjoy it.”
With his mother helming the operation, McCarron said he got a lot of help handling so many youngsters smoothly on one field.
“My park ball coach, Tony Powell, runs the drills, runs the camp, makes sure everything’s on time. Does a great job of that,” McCarron said. “Mobile Christian’s coaching staff in unbelievable. We’ve been here four years. They’ve been unbelievable – the whole school. We had kids that are on South Alabama’s team that have come out and volunteered. Then just normal everyday people that come out and choose to volunteer. We can’t thank them enough because none of this would be possible without everybody volunteering.”
Before posing for a photo with the volunteers, McCarron shared some advice with the Mobile Christian and South Alabama football players, emphasizing the value of “hard work.”
“Talent doesn’t always prevail,” McCarron said afterward. “Hard work prevails, though. Many teams that have been lined up across the field from us have been way more talented than a team that I’ve been on, but they didn’t work as hard as we worked from summer leading up to the season and during the week of practice, so hard work always prevails.
“And never believe somebody when they say you can’t achieve anything because they’re only telling you you can’t because they weren’t able to do it themselves. Believe in yourself, trust in yourself and go out and work and get it done.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
