Giving Back

Former Stars Help Future Stars

by Stephen M. Lewis
Content Editor

About 60 young football players are receiving a crash course in everything that surrounds football at the Central Virginia All Pro Football Camp, held at Varina Recreation Saturday and Sunday (June 23-24) from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

The 10-14-year-olds are going through combine-like drills, such as the 40-yard dash and the broad jump, catching and throwing passes and learning defensive skills throughout the two-day camp.

It pleases Kendall Short, president of CVAP (www.centralvaallpro.com).

“I saw that once they reached the high-school level, if they didn’t have a father that played high school football, or their father lacked the skills or their father was not in their lives, by the time they got to high school they were under prepared,” said Short, who has two children participating in the camp, Phillip Short, 13, and Robert Archer, also 13. “So I saw a need to get them in the right form and unlearn those bad behaviors before they get ingrained.”

Varina assistant coach and Glen Lea recreation coach Robert Scott heads up a star-studded staff that includes numerous former All-Metro players and current college and high school players.

“Guys are just giving back,” said Scott, who said CVAP had 30 players signed up but had 30 walk-ins. “We just wanted to do a little something on this side of town and get the kids in football mode. And make sure they have their fundamentals before football starts.”

Then Scott brought out the heavyweights to prove to the campers that the hard work pays off.

Jonathan Lewis, now with the Arizona Cardinals, and Virginia Tech’s Macho Harris, both addressed the campers during a morning break.

Both Lewis and Harris played football for Varina’s recreation program. Lewis starred at Varina High; Harris at Highland Springs.

Former Varina High star and current Arizona Cardinal Jonathan Lewis (center) gave autographs after giving a motivational speech during a break.

“Ya’ll have the perfect opportunity right here,” Lewis said to the campers. Lewis is also a former Virginia Tech star. “You are the future. But the future is not handed to you. You’ve got to work for it.”

Lewis and several other Varina Recreation graduates have as roughly 30 players from its program have or are playing in Division I football programs – Lewis, Harris, Michael Robinson (Penn State, San Francisco 49ers) and Brandon Minor (Michigan) to name a very few.

Another is Jeff Smith, a former Varina player now at Norfolk State. Smith helped at one of the stations.

“He went from being cut at Varina his freshman year, to getting a full
ride,” Scott said to the campers. “He worked his **** off to get where
he is.”

So did Lewis.

And he held no punches, holding true to CVAP’s motto – “Giving Back One Child At A Time.”

“I
don’t want to burst nobody’s bubble,” Lewis quipped. “But you can
multiply ya’ll into 64,000 kids. You know how many people out of 64,000
will go to the NFL? One.

“So the key is being a successful person.”

Jonathan Lewis, 6/23/07