Minden native and Super Bowl LVII winner, L’Jarius “J.J” Sneed, hosted The Inaugural L’Jarius Sneed Community Football Camp on July 15 at Minden High School’s football field “The Pit.”
The camp, for ages six to sixteen, began at 8:30 a.m. and lasted until 1 p.m. Sneed offered his expertise on the game of football to Minden’s youth, and the camp’s registration maxed out at 200 participants.
When Sneed brought forth the idea for a football camp, community members were eager to help make Sneed’s idea a reality.
“I got the idea to do this about two months ago, we put it together real fast. Coach Roland and Mr. Tim, they really helped me. I came to them and just told them what I wanted to do and we got it all together,” said Sneed.
Sneed wanted to not only host a football camp in his hometown, but host it at the same field he played on when he was in high school.
“I’m very excited to be here, I ain’t played on this field since I don’t know when. Every year now I’m going to have one, I hope it’s going to get bigger and bigger,” said Sneed.
This is the first of many community football camps for Sneed, as he plans to come back next year to host another camp.
“I’m really busy right now but I wanted to take the time to come back here. I got camp next week and I got down here at three in the morning and I gotta go right back home back to Kansas for camp. My plan for today is to spend some time with the kids today, probably take a few of them out after,” said Sneed.
Even through Sneed’s busy schedule, he made an effort to come back to the city he is from and inspire the youth in his hometown.
When Minden High School’s head football coach Spencer Heard was presented with Sneed’s idea of a community football camp, Heard and other coaching staff offered their assistance.
“Basically we were contacted by Jane and they really wanted to do something for the community. I mean I’m all for it, I thought it was a great idea,” said Coach Heard.
Heard and other volunteer coaches arrived early in order to set up Minden High’s football field for all the various activities of the camp.
“The field is split in half, got the little kids on the south end down there going through agilities for the first 45 minutes or so. Then the older kids over here, and after that we’ll take a little break. Then they’ll do some mini games, seven on seven type stuff, and they’re going to do a competition type thing. After that, L’Jarius is going to talk to them and have a meet and greet,” said Coach Heard.
For the first two hours of the camp, each age group participated in various football training activities from running routes to practicing guarding and tackling. All the participants had smiling faces as they shared high-fives and fist-bumps with Sneed.
When it hit noon all the coaches and camp participants filled the middle of the field’s stadium for a group photo, and afterwards, Sneed gave out autographs and took photos with anyone who wanted one.
Joe Roland, who works in Houston to put on community youth camps, was one of the main forces behind curating the camp.
“Joe was kind of the spearhead of everything, setting everything up that we got going basically,” said Coach Heard.
Roland, who is a friend of the Sneeds, began working closely with the Sneed family so the camp would be a success.
“It’s a credit to the coaches here at Minden and J.J. ‘s mother and family, they put it all together. Randy Tims and the local community, you know people putting us all together and facilitating it,” said Roland about how the camp came to be.
This is not Roland’s first community camp, as he often works with smaller communities to put on events for the youth of those communities.
“I help kids, that’s my ministry. I’ve been putting on camps for 20 plus years…I’m a coach, I help a lot of kids and I’m really focused on kids from smaller towns to help with more exposure,” said Roland.
Roland met Sneed during his time coaching NFL players, and the two conspired to produce a football camp right here in Minden.
“I’ve coached a number of NFL guys and I met L’Jarius through a friend. It’s great, he’s just a super young man giving back to his community and today we’re just having fun. Next year is going to be way bigger and better,” said Roland.
Sneed’s mother, Jane Sneed, headed the volunteer team and was there to welcome everyone who came to register for the camp.
“I would say I would be the executive or the CEO of L’Jarius Sneed camp,” said Sneed’s mother Jane Sneed through laughter.
Jane shares the same love as her son for giving back to their community and supported her son’s idea of putting on a community football camp.
“This is his first camp ever that he has given. This is the first community camp, he’s giving back to the community. L’Jarius came up with the idea that he would like to give back,” said Jane.
After the idea transpired, it wasn’t long before the planning and preparation for the camp began to take place.
“Once he came up with his idea, we went forward with some more Minden High people within the organization; like coach Heard, John Bradford, Joe Roland, myself, Randy Tims and Micheal Walker. We all got together and we kind of organized it for him for it to be successful today,” said Jane
In two short months, the camp was put together and ran smoothly. All the activities were planned for each age group and plenty of water and snacks were provided for the participants.
“This is just the beginning, we are going to continue this year after year because this is where he’s from and we would like to give back to the community every chance we can get,” said Jane.
The camp was a success as participants not only got to learn about football, but also met an esteemed NFL player that came from their own community.
Minden Mayor Nick Cox made an appearance at the beginning of the football camp to welcome the participants of the football camp and thank Sneed for his generosity of hosting the camp.
“Earlier this year we had a big parade for J.J Sneed. It’s a one in a million chance that a boy from Minden made it to the Super Bowl, and he did another one in a million thing by winning. Fifty years from now we’ll be talking about him, he’s a local legend but today y’all get to meet him and get to learn from him,” said Cox before the camp commenced.
Volunteers, the coaches and of course J.J. Sneed and his family made the event possible. The camp was a great way to give back to the community and put smiles on the participants’ faces.