Over the weekend, I was delighted to attend the second annual Davon Godchaux Free Football Camp held at Plaquemine High School. The camp, which ranged in ages for kids 7-15, was a huge success for the community as it brought out athletes from all over the parish. Organizer and host Davon Godchaux, a former standout at LSU and now with the Miami Dolphins had this to say about the camp. “It’s all about giving back to the community, it’s all about Plaquemine, the community that raised me, and made me who I am today. So it’s all about giving back to them, and those guys, and these kids, and seeing a smile on their faces is always priceless.”
The camp had roughly 300 attendees, ranging in a skill sets, and players from the college and NFL level that volunteered as coaches for the day. Making sure that all the campers were properly warmed up and stretched for the event was former LSU hurdler Morgan “Mo” Wells, who is now the Head of Speed Development & NFL Performance Coach for IMG Academy. Other coaches in attendance included Jarvis Landry, Rashard Lawrence, Nelson Jenkins, Todd Harris, and, Ronald Martin.
Attendees were put through several agility drills led by these coaches as their parents watched from the stands. Every child was given the opportunity to work on the drills and then were broken down into their position drills. Some included running cone drills and catching a football at the end, while others had participants working heavy bags to simulate fighting off blockers and turn a corner to sack the QB. At the end of the camp several prizes were awarded to campers including an Xbox One, a cooler donated by the NFLPA, and several gift cards donated by Pluckers.
When asked his reasoning for holding the camp for free versus charging to attend. Godchaux stated “I always want to give back to my roots, which is Plaquemine, and I invited a couple of guys, Rashard Lawrence, Jarvis (Landry), Nelson Jenkins, Ronald Martin, Todd Harris, and a couple guys I played with at the high school level and went on to play at the college level or at a higher level. Guys like that, I always want to get guys like that to come back, and help me out with something like this, because like I said it’s all about the kids.”
Godchaux did have two messages for the weekend. The first was on giving back to the community. “When you make it to the NFL level, give back, and giving back doesn’t have to be about giving money. A lot of people say when you give back, it’s all about giving money, but it’s not. Taking five minutes and talking to a kid, is something he will remember his whole life.”
His second message was working to achieve your goals. “When you get to the college level, be more than an athlete, work, work, work! At this point, hard work always beat talent. No matter how talented you are, if you have no work ethic, you won’t last. You might be able to fool a couple people for a couple of years, but you won’t last consistently in and out. So at the end of the day hard work is all I have to say. The odds weren’t in my favor to make it to the NFL, but I kept at it. Just work hard, don’t be denied, and keep God first.”
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