Palm Beach County youth sports camps filled with NFL pros

It's the off-season, one of a handful of weeks when NFL players who devote most of their year to football get some time off the sweaty field.

But today, in a 5-mile stretch of Palm Beach County, the fields will be full, sweat will be sweated, and you won't get far before running into a pro.

In a fluke of scheduling, two youth sports camps are being held today, practically next door to each other - one in Boynton Beach, one in Delray Beach, both aiming to let local kids and teens learn from professional athletes.

The first: Delray's Community Mentoring Youth Sports Camp, in its third year, this time headlined by the Kansas City Chiefs rising star Brandon Flowers. Fifteen to 25 college and professional athletes from different sports are expected to be there, including about a dozen football stars - among them, former Pro Bowl running back Jamal Lewis.

The second: Boynton's Police Athletic League's three-day Football Camp with the Pros, founded eight years ago and still anchored by retired NFL defensive back Mike Rumph. This year, Sabby Piscitelli of Boca Raton and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is helping out, and other pros (including Flowers) are expected to stop by today.

"It's right after minicamp and right before training camp," Rumph said. "This is the best time to get an NFL guy, while he's relaxing and he doesn't have a lot of obligations."

In light of the scheduling fluke - organizers on both sides say they didn't realize till after the dates were set - the similarities of the camps are striking.

Rumph grew up in Boynton, playing for the Police Athletic League's first youth team; Flowers grew up in Delray. Rumph's camp is taught by his high school coach; Flowers' mom works for the city and helped organize this year's event.

P.J. Williams, an assistant coach at Rumph's camp, said camps like these make a big difference. He's attended Rumph's camp every year, starting the first year it was held, when he was a camper. Now, the boy from Boynton is a rising junior at Lincoln University in Missouri on a football scholarship.

"It's a real good experience for the kids - something they can take away with them for the rest of their lives, a learning experience," he said. "Your role models, you see on TV every day, you come out here and get to meet them - that's like a dream come true."


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(palmbeachpost.com)