Terrell Thomas Giving Back in a Giant Way

June 29th was a hot day in Rancho Cucamonga, California as youth football players gathered at Chaffey College Football Stadium for the 5th annual Terrell Thomas 24 football camp. The New York Giants defensive back holds the camp in his home town of Rancho Cucamonga to give back to his community.

Kid’s ages 7 through 14 enjoyed a fun filled day of football and it is a great way for Thomas to show that he will always remember where he came from. “Giving back to the community that has been so supportive of my dreams is a real pleasure,” said Thomas. “I enjoy coming out and working with these kids to help them improve and realize their true potential.”

There were many current NFL players along with Thomas at the camp. Will Blackmon, Derek Hagan, Keith Rivers, Orlando Scandrick, Eric Wright and Kyle Moore were there along with many others. Moore and Thomas were teammates in college at Southern California. It was Moore’s first year at the camp and he was very happy to be able to help out his friend. “Terrell and I go back to our college days, even further back to when I was sleeping on his couch before I even started school. I’m having a good time out here today and this is all for the children and it was a great experience today.”

Moore offered a slogan to inspire the camp activities, “My slogan today was to ball hard. It’s easy to ball, but you want to go out there and ball better than everyone else, so ball hard was my slogan today.”

John ‘JD’ Daniels graduated from Cal Poly Pomona, where he majored in Kinesiology and Sports Medicine, and recently worked as the strength coach at USC, was on hand to help teach the kids.

“I’m a trainer, I work with athletes, so I’m here to get the kids stretched out. I’m very good with organization with the kids, getting them in line,” said Daniels.  “I make sure if there’s any injuries, we address the injuries in the proper way, make sure that kids are always leaving here with a smile on their face and of course having a good time.”  Thomas was also the best man in Daniels wedding and is always happy to work with one of his best friends.

At the end of the day’s activities an MVP was announced. A young boy named Chase took home the honors of MVP. After receiving the award Chase said “I worked hard, I gave respect and I listened and I was disciplined with the whole entire camp in the different drills. I was just being myself.” Chase was very deserving of the award and he along with all the other participants took full advantage of the opportunity to listen and learn from the NFL players. When asked about his favorite part the MVP said “Seeing and getting trained by all the NFL players. Getting to listen to all their knowledge and having them teach me”

Listen to PPI’s Exclusive Interview with Chase about receiving the camp MVP award:

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For Terrell’s, Mother, Teressa Knox, the camp means a lot, “We try to give back every year, so this is our opportunity to show the community that we’re here for you whenever you want to, so every year this is our way of giving back. One of the most memorable moments (of camp) was our first year, in ’09. We did five year olds, and they were awesome. So ecstatic, so excited and, you know, we want to go back to the five year olds, but it’s kind of hard to keep them tame. We start at seven now, and it’s just an awesome opportunity. Every year we get a boy from the camp, one or two, and we mentor them through high school.”

“When Terrell went to camps the cost was like $600 dollars a camp. He was going to University of Washington camps and Oregon State, and he told me at that time ‘mom, I want to continue going,’ so at that point I made sacrifices and so I told him, I said if we ever made it, we want to give an event so that single moms and people can come and do the same thing you were able to do, but just for not so much.”

Registration fee for Thomas’ camp was only $20.

With the help of the NFL players and the staff the camp was a great success. Thomas is a local hero to all the kids in Rancho Cucamonga and it is always a great feeling to give back to the community.

Follow Thomas on twitter @TerrellThomas24