5/30/2013 football Edit

Tyrell Johnson to host second annual camp at Rison

Luke Matheson

ArkansasVarsity.com Publisher

The second annual Tyrell Johnson football skill and development camp will be held Saturday, June 8th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Rison Wildcat football stadium.

Johnson, a safety for the Detroit Lions, saw huge success with his first camp, as nearly 300 athletes from across the Natural state turned out to learn from the all-star cast of NFL and former college football players who came out to help coach the event.

This year, many of those same players will be on hand after helping with last year's camp.

"I talked to a lot of the guys after last year's camp, and they loved it," said camp organizer Tyrell Johnson. "Their reactions were great, and they had a lot of fun and are excited to come out and do it again this year. They are excited to teach the kids more, and they are looking forward to spending more time with them at this year's camp."

Though last year's camp was very successful, Johnson plans on adding some new wrinkles to this year's camp.

"We will teach the kids about ACT preparation," said Johnson. "I decided to add this after seeing it at Devrett Wade's camp, and I thought it was a tremendous idea. We are going to do more football stuff instead of just doing a lot of drills. We're going to do a 7-on-7 and try to keep the contact at a minimum, but we want to do more football stuff instead of just doing drills."

"I'm going to have the school counselor come out and talk about the ACT and the NCAA Eligibility Center," Johnson continued. "The kids need to know how important both items are and we need to make sure they know that both are mandatory if you want to play college football."

The camp is free for all athletes between the ages of 12-18 or 7th-12th grades. It will be a great opportunity for rising high school football players to learn multiple skills from Johnson and his all-star staff. Teaching athletes football and life skills is one of the main goals for the camp.

"We just want to make sure kids leave better than they were when they came to the camp," said Johnson. "We want them to learn everything from footwork to life skills. I just want them to learn something they can use later in life, be it on or off of the field."

Athletes other than Johnson who will be at the camp include:

Shermar Bracy - Green Bay Packers, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Edmonton Eskimos

Marcus Brown - Seattle Seahawks, New Orleans Saints, Miami Dolphins

Kevin Williams - All-pro Minnesota Vikings

Fred Evans - Minnesota Vikings

Kevin Payne - Chicago Bears, St. Louis Rams, Carolina Panthers

Corey Williams - Detroit Lions

Kobe McKinnon - Arkansas State

Eddie Walker - Arkansas State

Devrett Wade - Arkansas State, F.A.S.T. Sports Performance

Ed Hapton - Arkansas State

Clay Totty - Head coach Rison Wildcats