TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — “People like Sam McGrew, my linebackers coach he played before I was born. He was playing in 2005. I was born in 2005," says Leon football player Andrew Ritter.
The generation gap you’ll find across sports between coaches and players only gets bigger by the day.
At the Tyrone McGriff and Friends Youth Football Camp, kids will learn the fundamentals of the sport from guys they didn’t grow up watching.
But Sam McGrew is continually surprised at how well the next generation responds to the coaching style he and so many others bring to the table.
"Not knowing anything I’ve ever done in my life is a blessing," McGrew told ABC 27. "Because you have a lot of guys around here who maybe didn’t even play a lot of football in their life but are actually good coaches.”
The hope is that this week full of fun and competition will leave a lasting imprint on the kids who are there. And show the community what coach McGriff has planned here at Leon.
“You have a quality guy at the leadership position. He’s going to do all the due diligence that he needs to put this program back to where it is," says Rickards and FAMU alum Wally Williams. "It was a storied program with a long history even before those guys.”
And exposing kids to positive role models like the guys you’ll see this week at camp, is exactly how McGriff begins to build his foundation.
“I’m trying to restore Leon’s roar. Having mentors that care about the product that is Big Bend football is extremely important," added head football coach Tyrone McGriff.
