Steve Smith Football Camp

Jack’s first camp of the summer was a Steve Smith Football Pro Camp over a few nights at a local high school.  It.was.awesome, to say the least.  Not only was Pro Bowler Steve Smith there leading the camp, but he invited a few of his fellow Carolina Panthers players out for the first night of camp, too—Luke Kuechly, Brandon LaFell, Charles Godfrey, and maybe a few others.  The campers were split up into teams for drills, evaluations, and then touch-football games.  Steve Smith played a game with each and every team and, over the course of the two nights, signed the camp shirt of each and every camper on the back as they wore it.  Steve Smith really showed his off-the-field humble, relatable side and definitely served as a great role model for all the young campers (I keep wanting to say ‘boys’, but there were a handful of girls out there, too—Ella said she wasn’t interested, though, for next year).  Needless to say, this was an awesome experience for our football-loving boy.  I wasn’t there for the entire camp each night, but did watch for a bit from the stands.  I was lucky enough the first night to catch when Steve Smith was playing quarterback for Jack’s team.


{jack’s got that star struck face.  he actually seemed pretty nonchalant about meeting so many panthers, calling them all by their first names.  he was telling us that he had been joking around with charles (charles godfrey, that is).  when i asked him if he talked to steve any, he told me, “ya, of course.”  so, of course, i asked him what he said to steve smith, expecting a run-down on a conversation.  but, to that jack replied, “i said ‘pass’.”  :)  and, you could kind of see it in a lot of my photos—jack’s body language, and probably words, staying “pass” to steve smith.}


{still trying to get steve’s attention.}


{pass!}

{jack doesn’t remember what happened here in his exchange with steve smith, but apparently it was pretty amusing.}




{and i guess that finally did the trick, to get steve’s attention.  finally a pass.}




{i wasn’t quick enough on the focus trigger, but had to keep the shot proving that jack caught the pass from steve smith and steve saw him do it.}


{that was the last pass to jack’s team before he moved on to the next team.  phew!}

I think we’ll be back for more next year!