Former Atlanta Falcons star linebacker Buddy Curry is bringing a unique football camp to Finley Stadium July 19-22.
The camp, known as “Kids and Pros,” is for ages 7-13 and will be held three hours each night.
“We’ll go through warm-ups, have an hour of offense, an hour of defense and then have a values lesson,” said Curry, who was an All-American at North Carolina.
The camp staff will include Curry, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Russ Huesman and his staff and several former pro players from the Chattanooga area, including Gerald Riggs Sr., Gerald Riggs Jr., Eric Westmoreland, Tawambi Settles and Nate Bandy.
Curry started the camps in 2002 with Falcons teammate Bobby Butler. Now the two have conducted 34 such camps.
“We had a group of guys in Atlanta that had played together, and at that camp we had 135 kids,” Curry recalled. “We had phenomenal feedback from the parents and the kids. We were teaching them fundamentals, but we also taught them about sportsmanship, character, integrity and teamwork — the things that make for good living and good citizens. We want to help kids tune in to life skills you learn from playing the game.”
Curry, in town Tuesday and today putting the final touches on camp plans, and Butler had seven of the camps last year and have planned 10 for 2010 — from Tallahassee to Chattanooga.
Curry played eight seasons for the Falcons. He was an Associated Press NFL Rookie of the Year in 1980 and still holds the team’s single-single tackles record (229).
Although he became a successful businessman, a family man and a devoted husband and father, Curry started the camps because he felt he was wasting a big part of what he had learned.
“I had 22 years of football experience and no outlet for it,” he said. “That’s what I did and who I am. I like football and I like kids, and I realized that I could make an impact on kids’ lives. At the same time, my family enjoys football, so we developed a business for teaching kids character through football.”
Curry is well aware of the number of pro players who make headlines in negative ways.
“There are a lot of really good people in pro football that are good examples, and the ones we hear about are maybe not good examples,” he said. “I want to provide high-character role models.”
Cost of the camp is $150. Anyone interested can learn more or register at www.kidsandpros.com.