Carolina Panthers Jonathan Stewart Coaching in Charlotte
Playing football as a child, most of the time you love your coach, but most of the time your coach is a parent of one of the players on the team, or your parent. Then, if you go to a summer football camp, more than likely, the coaches at the camp will be area high school coaches, or if attending a college summer football camp, the coaches will likely be some college players and coaches.
However, what if the coaches at the summer camp you went were actual NFL Players? You would be thrilled! Well, 250 children ranging from the first to the eight grade were able to have this experience on Friday and today at Ardrey Kell High School in Charlotte.
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This camp was hosted by Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart, who took over for Steve Smith who had run the camp for the last eight years. Since Smith is now in Baltimore, he asked his good friend Stewart to take it over since the organizers felt it would be beneficial to have a players host, who was on the Panthers. Of course Stewart said yes – he values being able to teach the youth, as he previously ran a football camp in his home state of Washington for the last four years.
Credit: Chris Schafer
The campers did get an extra bonus though in addition to Stewart being the host, as Steve Smith still came back and participated, as well as Luke Kuechly and Mike Tolbert. The camp was an all-star event.
Of course Stewart took full advantage of helping out the youth, as he immediately became engaged an hour into the morning session on Friday. One of the youth was engaged in a running back drill when he broke through the line, but stopped short of the goal line.
“The end zone’s right there, you’re only 15 yards out,” Stewart encouraged the young runner.
Strong, encouraging words from an NFL star to a young child – words this child will remember forever.