Attended both sessions, for the second year in a row. About 250 kids. First was father / son “camp”. About 1.5 hours. Basically, you going through 3-4 drills super simple drills with / competing against your kid. This cost $35. Second was player camp for kids, lasted about 2 hours for kids, consisting of simple drills, etc. This was free. That EB cares enough to hold the camp at all, much less for free, is a testament to what a genuinely good dude he is, how much he still loves Knoxville and believes in giving back. And if that isn’t enough, all of the money raised at the camp (eg food, T-shirt’s, father / son camp fees, etc.) went to the Zaveon Dobson Foundation. And lastly, EB personally matches the donated total x10. James Berry is the real deal, man. You’d only need about 3 minutes with that cat to perfectly understand how Eric, Evan and Elliott turned into such great young men. It wasn’t accidental. He’s not too serious at all, jokes a lot, totally encouraging to everyone....but like any coach, he can also get super-serious, and too damned quick to talk about it, if you’re not paying attention, or half-assing it (not putting out, listening, goofing off, etc.). JRM and Gaulden both showed up, and were standing off to the side talking / taking pics with parents / campers, basically bullshitting. James Berry yelled for both to come over, and assigned each to work stations on individual drills. JRM was throwing passes to some campers, and Gaulden was shagging the balls thrown back in from the campers. Like last year, a kid again responded to one of his questions with a “yeah” and was immediately told “You say “yeah” to your buddies - I’m not your friend, I’m your coach! You say “Yes, sir” and “No sir” to me!” Three kids were grab-assing while standing in line for a drill, and he grabbed them - snatched them - out of line, asking who told them it was ok to act that way. He made them stand beside him for several minutes, while the rest of their group continued to work out. When the camp broke, some helper coaches were unsuccessfully trying to get 250 kids lined up single file to go get camp bags and their food. Some kids just ran off, straight to the tables with bags / food. It was equal parts bedlam and calamity. James Berry is talking to some people about 50 yards away when he notices this and just booms, “Hey! What are ya’ll doing?! You hear these coaches telling you to line up? GET OVER HERE AGAINST THIS FENCE!” 250 kids ran to that fence and were perfectly in line in about 20 seconds. All of the Berry’s are everywhere and doing everything during the camp, including Eric. My second favorite moment was seeing all of the Berry boys out on the field, collecting equipment and trash, as soon as the last drill was over (they weren’t alone, but were working) when James yells for Eric and he immediately drops everything and sprinted - SPRINTED - to him. My most favorite moment (besides my kid getting to work with the Berry’s and other players / coaches) was James explaining to the entire camp / all parents that this year’s camp shirts have changed - to where he now gets top billing. He said, “I told my boys that they still don’t have nothing on me, and that we all know that I’m the real reason that we always have such a great turnout. Sure enough, the camp shirts all said, “James and Eric Berry Camp”. They held a little award ceremony at the end of each session, and gave away some prizes. After all of the winning campers were announced, and they had come forward for their prizes, James goes up front and tells the entire camp - “You see these guys (the camp winners...some of which were dads)? I picked everyone of them. Do you know why? Because they did the best? NO! Look at’em! I picked them because every one of them had on this (pointing at their shirts, hats, etc.) - THAT TENNESSEE ORANGE!! So, remember that next year! You shouldn’t ever leave the house without your orange on! That’s how we remember and let the world know that we’re all family, in this together, and that it’s bigger than all of us!” Gave me chills, tbh. There’s a lot of truth there.
Gaulden was somehow always near my son and I, most likely as he was trying to use my physique / skillzz as a preview to what he’ll see in the NFL. We spoke for a few minutes while stretching, and I told him that he’ll always be beloved for the double birds at Bama. He laughed and said those fans deserved it. Adding, you “couldn’t imagine the shit those fans yell at you”. I told him that if I had three guesses, I wouldn’t need the last two - and he just belly laughed and agreed that I probably wouldn’t. I told him that I had read where he was asked about it during his interviews at the combine, and hoped that most would understand the sentiment and not hold it against him. He said, “I just told them - you’ll never going to meet a Tennessee player who doesn’t hate Alabama.” And then, he sort of pauses, before leaning closer to me and sort of whispers (there are kids everywhere, including mine) - “I just told’em (NFL teams)....I have always [uck fay]ing hated Alabama, still do and always will...and that I’d do it again given the same chance.” Then he sort of straightens back up and says in a normal tone, “But then, I just told them that Bama doesn’t play in the NFL, so they wouldn’t have to worry about it happening again.” I really like Rashan Gaulden.
