OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — It isn’t everyday a kid gets to meet his idol. That’s the case for many young football players in attendance at Alex Smith’s Pro Camp for Kids. It runs all weekend at Shawnee Mission West High School.
The Chiefs’ starting quarterback is spending this rainy weekend looking at 180 sets of bulging eyeballs. Most of the kids at Smith’s camp are from the metro and most fall between first and eighth grades.
Smith says he remembers his own days of youth football and who he idolized back in the day.
“I hate to say this in this part of the country, but John Elway always came out,” Smith said while reminiscing. “I know I shouldn’t be saying that, but him and Steve Young. California kids. ”
And now, Smith says he wants to lend some time to the current crop of NFL dreamers.
Now entering his tenth season as a pro quarterback, Smith says he remembers growing up outside San Diego, and attending youth camps in his own formative years.
Smith says it’s important to get kids past being star-struck, and to make the game fun for these young campers.
“I think the main thing is that you’re enjoying football,” Smith explained. “Certainly, you don’t ever want to create a situation where kids aren’t enjoying it because you want them coming back.”
And his enthusiasm seems to have paid off.
“It’s like getting lessons from a pro,” Tyler Hogan, a fourth grader from Belton, MO, said. “I feel like i’m going to get to be a pro sometime.”
Seventh-grader Garrett Dempsey, who attends school in the Wichita area, said he’s going to remember meeting Smith for years to come.
“I’m going to remember about how I was taught by a soon-to-be all-star,” Dempsey said.
Smith won’t go back to football in earnest until the next set of offseason training activities for the Chiefs, which begin on June 10.
Meanwhile, his Pro Camp for Kids continues all weekend long at Shawnee Mission West High School.
Smith’s camp is directed by Pro Camps, that’s an organization from Ohio that conducts as many as 10 camps per month with active NFL stars.
Click here to check out Sean McDowell’s FOX 4 Facebook page.
