By Ana Gomez Salcido
Around 300 kids from San Diego learned about the basics of football, exercise, and sportsmanship through the Play 60 Character Camp at Madison High School, on Thursday, July 21.
“Five years ago, my son and I went to the league and asked about the Play 60 program that encourages kids to be active for 60 minutes. I was already involved in it, and said why we didn’t add some character to it,” said Hall of Fame offensive tackle, Anthony Munoz. “I have been doing character camps for 15 years with my foundation, so that’s how five years ago we started doing the Play 60 Character Camp.”
NFL Play 60 is the National Football League’s campaign to encourage kids to be active for 60 minutes a day in order to help reverse the trend of childhood obesity. The Character camps are lead by the former NFL football players.
“We want to teach this kids about football, but at the same time, we want to teach them about exercise, eating well, and being a person of character,” said Munoz. “So kids can do the right things, be responsible, and have respect for themselves and other people.”
The goal is for the kids that are part of the one-day camp to teach others about what they learned.
“Hopefully these kids can learn what we are teaching them and then they can go to their families, schools, and the community and not just keep it here,” said Munoz. “We hope this happens and we have heard a lot of feedback that this does happen.”
For five years, Play 60 has been organized in 23 different cities, including the city hosting the Super Bowl.
The coaches at the camps that make up the program were recruited from the Chargers, USA Football, and from youth programs in the community.
San Diego Chargers player Steve Williams participated at this year’s Play 60 Character Camp as one of the coaches.
“It’s good for the kids to see that their dreams can come true. Whether it’s football or something else, it’s all about focus, determination, discipline, and learning from the elder people,” said the Chargers cornerback. “I just want to come with the kids and have fun, to have them entertained while learning, and being active.”
The physical activity at the camp develops social skills and helps the kids to be around others. “Physical activity also teaches them about competing with one another,” added Williams.
The camp host mentioned that at the end of the day, parents and kids give feedback about wanting the event to be held again.
“That tells us that they really enjoyed it,” said Munoz. “Right now, the Play 60 Character Camp is only held once through the NFL, but I do the camp at my high school for three or four days through my foundation.”
The kids that participated in this Thursday’s camp were between 9 and 13 years old.