Young football players train with NFL players in Long Beach twice within the last seven days.

A former Long Beach Poly Jackrabbit and current NFL player put up a football camp for the youths in Long beach. Over the weekend, 11-year NFL vet Marcedes Lewis was the one who gathered up youths at his alma mater in order to host his eighth annual one-day camp. Lewis said at the event:

“What good is success if you don’t give back? What’s crazy to me is now we have kids that have been coming for six or seven or eight years, and now I’ve got friends of mine who played Pop Warner with me here bringing their kids out for the camp. It’s like a family reunion with a football.”

The heat was much on Saturday but it didn’t stop over 300 youths who came to the event. Lewis and his team gave instructions on proper form, did lots of exercise, gave out a free camp T-shirt and free lunch to the kids as well.

There were over a hundred volunteers as the community support has been goring year on year.  Long Beach Poly returnee Jurrell Casey also did great forcing the Poly’s coach, Antonio Pierce to say:

“This is what it’s all about. The world is round and you have to come back home. It’s great to see guys like Marcedes and Jurrell Casey last week giving back to their community.”

Pierce supported the events and even brought his kids to enjoy in the training. Lewis promised he would keep the programme running for as long as possible, even if his contract runs out. Lewis signed his likely last NFL career contract a few months ago with Jacksonville Jaguars, the only team he has ever played for. Lewis’ family in Yvonne Withers, his mother, and  Niki Withers, who are volunteers doing most of the background work ahead of the annual camp, promised that they would keep the camp running for as long as possible.