This June, a new youth football and skills camp will take place in South Dakota, and it has chosen Brookings as its host community. The Cash Money Youth Skills Camp is partnering with Fellowship of Christian Athletes to bring in NFL, College, and high school athletes and coaches to work with kids for free.
“When you charge money for camps, I think it really dilutes the value of the camp and it excludes some kids,” explained Cash Money Skills Camp director Noah Clair. “I’m ok with people charging money for AAU and getting better at that extra stuff. But I’m a big believer in any kid, who’s young, should ever have to pay for anything to get better.”
For the past five-years, Noah ‘Cash Money’ Clair has lived in Brookings. Along with being on the Brookings Bobcats booster club board and doing work in radio as a show host and sports broadcaster, he also enjoys helping kids who are struggling to get recruited. The idea of a youth camp, however, is something Clair has been working on making a reality for the past two-years.
One of Clair’s good friends, Pierre Desire, who has spent time in the National Football League as a defensive back since 2014, helps run a free youth camp in the St. Louis, Missouri area for inner-city kids. This is part of what inspired Clair to do something similar in South Dakota.
“It’s a football camp, but more so I want it to be a youth camp, so even if a kid doesn’t play football, even if it’s a kid who can barely jump, I want every kid to be able to come to this,” Clair explained. “You can’t lead without serving and growing up sports were a big part of my life and they continue to be a big part of my life today. I think sports bring together different backgrounds, races, and can unite people behind the game. Also, Christian faith has been a big part of my life. There’s no higher honor than serving others. I know now days in society, everybody wants to win over each other and be the best, and that’s great, but the highest honor you can ever do is to serve other people and to love other people.
The NFL, College and high school representation for the camp has not yet been announced, but the plan is to have both local and regional athletes/coaches present. As far as the format is concerned, kids from 2nd grade to a senior in high school can sign up. The camp is scheduled for Saturday June 26th and it will separate 2nd-5th grade into morning sessions and grades 6-12 into afternoon sessions. A social event will follow at Cubby’s Sports Bar & Grill in downtown Brookings with autograph sessions for all of the kids.
Registration for the event is now OPEN, click here for more.
