Central Vt. kids train with professional athletes in summer sports camp

NORTHFIELD, Vt. (WCAX) – Before school athletics began again, 7th through 12th grade kids got to learn from pros, like former NFL player Ernest Spears.

“Coming from Southern California there’s a professional athlete on every block, and it’s not like that out here. and I just thought they could use some help, and I have that skill set so I just thought it would be a great idea to help these kids — my way of giving back to the community and doing something positive,” said Spears.

After the floods last summer, Sears and Kerry Clark co-organized the camp.

“We wanted to really give something to our community, and really talked about instilling more confidence into our youth, and how can we do that as a collective,” said Clark.

A major part of that mission is removing the cash barrier. “I decided it’s always going to be a hundred percent free,” said Spears.

“Anybody that’s a parent really understands the costs of a lot of camps these days, and we thought maybe starting small, maybe a few days, a couple hours,” said Clark.

With the help of sponsors, Clark and Spears secured three days at Sabine Field at Norwich University for students to learn.

Kids who joined last year showed up again and the group grew. “It’s really fun, we learned a lot, I think I got a lot faster… I really like the experience of being around the pro athletes,” Aidan Badger, Spaulding High School senior.

“I wasn’t like the most confident on how I was running and stuff, and I think like certain things that they’ve taught me help improve how I’ve been running,” said Mollie Clark, Spaulding High School senior.

Spears says he hopes to keep the momentum going. “All of Vermont, I want them to know that this is available, I want them to have access to this type of information… I want this to be a camp where there’s gonna be a lot of professional athletes that are gonna be here involved,” he said.

Including the in-person teaching, Spears invited three professional athletes to livestream in and speak to the kids each day.

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