America's youth have numerous options that allow them to participate in organized sports today. USA Football's Player Academies provide youth players with a developmental youth football experience with a position-specific and age-appropriate curriculum. Training is received from top local youth and high school coaches teaching the fundamentals of the game.
USA Football's Plano (Texas) Player Academy from July 19-22 will also have two former NFL players on hand to speak to the youngsters. Offensive lineman Ken Reeves, who was born in Pittsburg, Texas, played football at Texas A&M and five seasons (1985-89) with the Philadelphia Eagles and one (1990) with the Cleveland Browns. Running back Erik Bickerstaff played for the Dallas Cowboys from 2003-05. Neither player played organized football prior to junior high, but they now want to give back to the sport and the youth who have a great opportunity to learn about both the game and life at the Player Academy.
Reeves and Bickerstaff recently spoke with USA Football about the sport, what it has taught them and why they wanted to help youth players at the Player Academy.
What does the sport of football mean to you?
Reeves: Basically what it meant to me was perseverance, fortitude, teamwork and leadership. Football really teaches you how to work in the framework of a team. It shows you how vital it is that all members of that team work in unison and work together for the accomplishment of a common goal and all of the attention to detail that it takes to receive that and how everybody's got a different critical part to play in that framework. It takes a lot of fortitude - the willingness to get kicked and get knocked down. And you don't have a long time to recover - in the sport of football you've got about 25-30 seconds to bounce back from a bad play or a bad call and get back, compose yourself and get ready for the next play. In terms of leadership, every team has a head coach who is the go-to leader, but there are also informal leaders on a team who really take control of things on the field. So really, the game of football to me was built on those four components: perseverance, fortitude, teamwork and leadership.
Bickerstaff: It means a lot. It's pretty much second to none for me. Football is everything. I wish I were still playing it. If it wasn't for all my injuries, I wish I were still able to be out there on the field and be a part of the football world.
What did your days playing in junior high and high school mean to you?
Reeves: That's where the fortitude and perseverance started for me because I have an interesting story. I was one of those kids that was always athletically gifted, but we didn't have a lot of youth sports in my hometown. But we'd go out on Saturdays and go to the open fields and play football and a lot of sports on an informal basis. When I got to junior high and the 7th grade, you had a lot of structure and it was hot with the pads on and you had to get in shape and all that kind of stuff. Then I quit. I was like "this is a lot harder than I anticipated." It was my father who said "Hey, I don't really care if you play sports or not, but you'll never start something and quit." So through that leadership and guidance of my father, I went back out and got better and better and better. If I had not been able to persevere and have that guidance in my home, I probably never would have played sports. This was the first day that I actually quit the team. So not only if I had not at some point and time gotten that perseverance for myself but also if someone had not guided me to persevere through that situation through someone else's leadership, then who knows what would have happened.
Why is it important to you to give back to the sport and assist at the Player Academy?
Reeves: I think that to whom much is given, much is expected. I look at all the things that football has done for me and not only football per se but all the lessons I've learned from football because I've been able to take a lot of the lessons that I've learned from football and transition them into a very successful career. Since I retired from the NFL, I went back to graduate school, got my Master's degree, I'm about to complete my PhD and I've been in corporate America with several big Fortune 500 companies leading their human resources function. So I've been able to draw upon my experience in football and transition that. So the reason I feel it's important is I don't feel that enough youth understand what they're about to embark on and the valuable lessons they're going to learn all throughout their evolution of being exposed to sports. If we don't teach them the valuable lessons to be aware of, then you just don't get that by osmosis because a lot of players coming out of the college and professional level for the most part don't even realize the transitional skills that they possess and that they can parlay into a corporate career. So I think it's imperative that we start at the youth levels ingraining that message that this is what it takes to succeed in football and not only to succeed in football but to succeed in life.
Bickerstaff: Just wisdom. I figure if I have wisdom to share with the youth players, I think that will be beneficial for them - just making right decisions because young people are going to have so many distractions and they can lose focus. The main thing to succeed at the next or any level is just staying focused. So if I can give back that way with some of the wisdom and some of the experience that I've been through, I think I can do a great job to help the sport and the youth players.
Youth players can hear more from Reeves and Bickerstaff at USA Football's Plano Player Academy by registering online today.
