More than 110 come out for Bradshaw's camp

BLUEFIELD, Va. — Ahmad Bradshaw had a dream to play in the National Football League. He’s doing it.

He had another dream too. That, too, has become reality.

More than 110 young boys showed up at Graham High School on Monday morning to take part in Bradshaw’s Cross the Tracks Entertainment Football Camp.

Bradshaw was also there, and he was enjoying it all.

“It’s been wonderful, man, it’s a pleasure to be out here, a pleasure to give back,” said Bradshaw, a Graham graduate and Marshall product, who is entering his third season as a running back with the New York Giants. “It’s something I dreamed about having my own camp and it’s something I’ve been looking forward to for several years.”

Camp organizer Dusty Gray, who is a close friend of Bradshaw’s, counted 113 kids during what will be the first of three six-hour days of football instruction that will run through Wednesday for boys ranging in age from six to middle school.

“I’ve been on Ahmad ever since he left to do something to give back to the community and he did, he just came through for us,” Gray said. “Just having Ahmad Bradshaw out here, you can see the joy in their eyes, everybody is wanting an autograph so it is good to see.”

Bradshaw was a star at Graham High School, running for 5,265 yards and 92 touchdowns before accumulating 2,982 yards and 31 scores in three seasons at Marshall. A seventh round draft choice by the Giants in 2007, Bradshaw was the leading rusher in Super Bowl XLII, which was won by New York against the Seattle Seahawks.

With that type of pedigree, no wonder a crowd of kids showed up at Graham on Monday, and many left with an autograph from a Super Bowl champion.

“When I was young, I never had this opportunity to come out and have a pro football player giving them a camp,” said Bradshaw, who hopes to be joined the next two days by fellow Giants’ running backs Danny Ware and Andre Brown. “It’s always a blessing to come back and give back. It’s something they can take advantage of and something where I can look forward to giving back...

“Today we went over a lot of the basics, tomorrow will be techniques, and different things for the next two days. I’m surprised with all the people that came out, it’s just a pleasure to have this many people.”

Among the instructors lined up for the camp was another former Graham running back — Robert Henry — who has added at least 40 pounds since high school and is now a junior fullback and tight end at Marshall.

“I can remember when I was this age, I used to always look up to the guys that would come back and talk to us,” said Henry, who expects to see playing time this season for the Thundering Herd. “The guys working the camp with me are the guys I used to look up to when I was their age.

“It’s kind of fun seeing all the kids running around out here and running hard. We’re trying to encourage them to keep playing...Some of these guys are a lot older than me and they’re still out here trying to help out the community.”

The focus of the camp is instruction, teaching fundamentals, the importance of an education, and — most of all — just having fun.

“We’re just trying to teach them the basic fundamentals,” Gray said. “Just try to have fun, just be positive with them, and let them know this game isn’t just about the football, you’ve got to get your grades. Hopefully our guest speakers will get that across to them.”

Henry served as a guest speaker on Monday, with Graham football coach Doug Marrs slated for that task today. Bradshaw will do the talking on Wednesday.

“Pretty much what I talked to them about today was education, hard work, and dedication,” said Henry, who has been joined on the Herd by former Graham stars T.J. Carper and Josh Halsey. “Just tell them to stay in school and keep your grades up. Not only do you compete out here on the field, you compete in the classroom because you get A’s and B’s with people around you.

“I talked to them about how good a degree is and told them you can’t play football forever, but hard work always comes. If you just keep working hard everything is going to fall into place.”

Bradshaw started as a member of the Chargers’ Little League football program in Bluefield Virginia, and the monies raised from this camp will benefit that organization.

“We’re trying to help them out, we’ve got a lot of stuff we need to get for them and we feel like this will be a good way to do it,” said Gray, who plans to make this camp an annual event. “The money will be (divided) up to where the camp can be run again next year and maybe not just football.

“Maybe we can go to another sport like basketball and work with the girls and stuff like that.”

Football camps have become a summer staple for NFL football players, including Pittsburgh tight end Heath Miller, who has run similar events in Honaker, Va., and Jason Witten, the Cowboys’ tight end, who hosts a camp each summer in nearby Elizabethton, Tenn.

“They all do camps, or somebody will come and help each other out,” said Bradshaw, whose Giants will start training camp on Aug. 2. “You see a lot of camps given in the NFL.”

Gray added: “Any of them could have reached out and got the response we did, but I’m glad it was Ahmad. We’re going to do it every year, we’re hoping to get bigger and do it a lot better every year as we go. That’s our main goal.”

Fun will definitely be the most important part of the camp. In fact, the final act before the first day ended was a pep talk for the kids, with them asked if they were having fun. The response was a resounding and very loud ‘yes.’

“I’m pretty pleased, it’s just a joy to see the kids out here running around and having fun,” said Gray, who credited the Daily Telegraph with the strong turnout, adding that the ‘newspaper did everything for us.’ “We have some surprises out here, we have kids from as far as Detroit here so that is a blessing.”

For Bradshaw, this camp was another accomplishment to mark off his list of dreams.

“It’s just for the kids, man, I love to give back,” Bradshaw said. “It’s just all for them, just for them to get their technique down and learn the game of football.”

Bradshaw learned football in Bluefield, and learned it well. He’s now at the highest level of the game. Perhaps another local product is dreaming of the same thing. Bradshaw is proof ... it can be done.

“You can do it,” Gray said. “Anyone, if you put your heart to it, you can do it.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

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