Westside’s Jackson returns to hometown with football camp

Kareem Jackson is used to making the trip from Houston to Macon.

On a humid Friday morning, while most kids likely were still sleep at 9 a.m., more than 100 kids joined Jackson at Henderson Stadium for his annual football camp.

This is his fourth or fifth year — Jackson wasn’t quite sure which — coming back to Macon to host his camp, saying he wish others had done the same when he was younger to teach him about the game and their experiences.

“It’s great,” Jackson said of being able to come back. “To get a chance to come back and teach the kids fundamentals, the importance of being healthy and doing the right thing as far as obeying your parents, it’s always great for me.”

The purpose of the camp was to focus on the fundamentals of football. Some of the drills were running routes, a scoop-and-score drill and various drills working on footwork.

Jackson was all over the field, pushing the players to work harder, coaching them on their footwork, to slapping high fives with them after a good repetition. He wasn’t in the background as he helped the other coaches run drills, broke out of huddles and joked around with the players, as well. And when he saw the smiles on the players’ faces, that’s what was most rewarding for him.

Jackson is no stranger to doing positive work in his community.

In addition to his family and community in Macon, he also is involved with giving back to the Houston community. Having a personal connection with cancer in his family, he visits young patients, spending time with them, and he hopes to bring some of the outreach he does to Macon.

For now, Jackson wants the young players to know he cares about them and wants to show the community he cares, and what will be most rewarding for him is the see some of these players make it.

“I hope my message will get through to at least two or three kids,” Jackson said. “And that they want to go out and pursue their goals.”

This story was originally published June 24, 2016 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Westside’s Jackson returns to hometown with football camp."