TWIGGS COUNTY, Ga. — NFL standout Darqueze Dennard continues to provide opportunities for young students in Central Georgia.
The latest endeavor from the Twiggs County native is a youth travel football team to help younger players develop into better student athletes on and off the field.
"The travel football will be the first of other sports and other things to get different avenues to kids, especially at this early age to kinda teach structure," he said.
Athletic director Deion Stanley says it starts with the community.
"I grew up on the whole concept it takes a village to raise a child. We're trying to bring the greatness out of Macon and the greatness out of Twiggs County and the greatness out of surrounding counties," Stanley said.
Although Stanley and Dennard can both agree they want the kids to excel in sports, Dennard says football won't last forever.
"Football will have a expiration date. You never know whether it be high school, college, or pros," he said.
Dennard says getting the kids involved in activities also takes a little pressure off parents.
"Parents got a lot of stuff to do as far as working and providing for they kids," he said.
One kid who participated says he's grateful to have NFL star leadership.
"It's just a good experience, just working with him, working out, helping all the little kids and stuff, doing all the drills," he said.
You can't forget the young ladies! Dennard says there's also an opportunity for them as well.
"We also have something for the girls, cheerleading and dancing, so we're trying to hit every avenue," Dennard said.
Stanley says hitting every avenue will start at Dennard's youth enrichment center.
"We're starting tutoring programs in the youth center. We have smart boards, we actually cubicles that we're going to get, with single and double cubicles that the kids can actually put their computers in... An example of a study hall like in college. We're doing the stem base curriculum at the program so everything that they'll be doing will be hands on," Dennard said.
Stanley says he sees this as a great opportunity to help the youth because him and his former high school teammate faced some obstacles along the way that he hopes they can help others avoid.
"When me and Quez got to freshman year in college, I was Georgia southern he was at Michigan State, we called each other one night and just said how hard the work was, how long study hall was, and just how brutal everything was, and we felt like we wasn't as prepared as we could of been. So the biggest thing that got me was trying to bridge the gap between these kids, just showing them that it's more than just sports they can play, but it's also about academics," Stanley said.
Dennard recently made the move to play for the Arizona Cardinals after spending 2020 with the Falcons.
He says his foundation plans to host more tryouts, as well as a camp later this summer.