Children learn cheer, football and life skills

Free camps are brainchild of Rams tight end

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Most sports camps are designed exclusively to teach campers how to become better at a specific sport, but the Youth Lifeline Foundation's Football & Life Skills Camp and Cheerleading & Life Skills Camp, which return to Las Vegas for a second year on Thursday, are designed to teach sports and a little something about life.

The two camps are free to attend and are the product of the works of St. Louis Rams tight end Roland Williams, who created the foundation in 1999. Camps will be held at Valley High School, 2839 S. Burnham Ave. The Football & Life Skills Camp, for high school students, runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, while the Cheerleading & Life Skills Camp for girls in 6th through 10th grade will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.

Williams, who won a Super Bowl in 2000, explained where the idea for the Life Skills camps got its start.

"Honestly, it started with me as a young man and one of the single-most life-changing experiences in my life when I went to Syracuse University Football Camp," Williams said. "What made the camp great was not so much the football part, but it was the first time I saw a college campus, the first time I saw a lot of successful people in one place. They had a weight room and we ate good and it was just a great experience.

"And it changed my life because it gave me the ability to dream. So what we do, we give people a real live environment where they can dream and where they can recognize that they can achieve goals and recognize they can win in life."

Williams could not commit on which National Football League stars would help him with the Las Vegas camps, but said his Rams teammate and former Eldorado High School standout Steven Jackson would likely be here. In the past, such NFL stars as New York Giants' Kurt Warner, Oakland Raiders' Charles Woodson, New Orleans Saints' Az-Zahir Hakim and Rams' Torry Holt have participated, along with scores of others.

The Cheerleading & Life Skills Camp features active and retired NFL cheerleaders, as well as coaches and local business people to teach the participants the different things they have deemed important in being a cheerleader as well as in their personal lives.

Probably the most unique aspect taught at the camps -- which Williams plans to take to Atlanta, New York City, Los Angeles, Orlando and Phoenix in the future -- are the four basic life skill principles taught to help provide a stabilizing thread in the lives of the campers, Williams explained.

"We try to utilize and harness the power of athletes and entertainers to come and teach life skills to middle school and high school youth," he said. "The four major components are financial literacy, computer/Internet competency, health/nutrition and goal achievement strategies and that includes social etiquette and a whole lot of conflict-resolution skills. We're basically trying to teach young people to have a game plan to try and win in life."

Campers who think they can coast right through it and not pay attention, can think again.

"We give them extensive pamphlets, we do life skills, team-building workshops, then we go break off into small discussion groups and they have homework," Williams said. "We actually download the life skills to the kids in every way possible. And we test them before the camp. We test them after the camp. And that's how we know (they're learning)."

Each day, participants are required to adhere to a strict life skill curriculum to maintain their position in the free camp. All campers must participate in seminars and small discussion groups, complete extensive daily homework and recite the various life skill phrases upon request to staff members.

In addition to the life skill training part of the football camp, participants receive expert athletic training from NFL players and coaches and get T-shirts for each day of camp, nutritional meals, gifts and awards. A full medical staff as well as a hydration team are present to cater to the physical needs of the campers.

The camp is open to everyone. Visit the foundation's Web site (www.youthlifeline.org) to register.

"We still have a host of slots available for the football camp and especially the cheer camp," Williams said. "Any girls in the sixth to 10th grade demographic that want to participate in the cheerleading camp should come out."

After completing the camps, identical post-camp tests are given. From 2001 to 2004, 17 percent of those tested received a passing grade on the foundation's Life Skills pre-test. Following the camp, post-test scores rose to a 98 percent pass rate.

Williams, who also played with the Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, explained why he decided to bring his camp to Sin City.

"It originally started out with me just hearing about the need," Williams said. "I know guys who this is their hometown. Ed Hartwell from the Ravens, Steven Jackson, he's with the Rams, I play with him now. A lot of people felt there was a need for this kind of programming in Las Vegas.

"We already do programming in Rochester, New York; and Utica, New York; and Oakland, California; and we're just excited to bring Las Vegas in as the fourth installation of the foundation."

Williams knows how powerful his message has become.

"I'm a real-life success story. I'm the first one from my family to go to college."

Besides the valuable real world skills learned at the camp, campers will receive membership in the foundation's Team Lifeline Program which includes quarterly newsletters, life skills conferences, gifts and free admission to special events.

On Friday, the Youth Lifeline will hold its Celebrity Gridiron Golf Classic from 7 p.m. to midnight at Angel Park Golf Club, 100 S. Rampart Blvd. The event will include live entertainment, photo opportunities with NFL players and celebrities, autographed merchandise, a VIP gift pack, a silent auction, dinner and drinks, a round of golf on the Cloud Nine course and a driving range competition.

Williams -- who has his own camp to go to three weeks later when his Rams report to training in Earth City, Mo., outside of St. Louis -- gets that what he's doing with his camps is much bigger in scope than winning a single game in the NFL.

"If I can have a legacy of teaching life skills and teaching people how to win and be positive citizens in this world, that's what it's all about," he said. "That's bigger than any Super Bowl I can win."