Former Cincinnati Bengal Brandon Wilson holds football camp in Shreveport

SHREVEPORT, LA (KTAL/KMSS) —Having the opportunity to give back to the community that raised them is a dream for many NFL players. That’s exactly what former Cincinnati Bengal and Cavalry alum, Brandon Wilson, did at his third annual youth camp on Saturday put on by the Caddo Parish Parks and Recreation Department.

“Wanted to spark some type of hope to, encourage them to go play football, encourage them to do any type of sport or just have some type of dream to go and get,” Wilson said.

Wilson hopes to fill a gap that was missing when he was growing up in the Shreveport area.

“I wanted to come back and give back to the kids, get back to the community,” Wilson said. “That’s what I try to do every camp because I know when I was little, I didn’t really have camps growing up, so I always wanted to do something like that.”

While Wilson spent his professional career on the defensive side of the ball, it was important to him that all campers participated in drills and learned the basics of all positions.

“So today I know they’re going to be doing 40 yard dash, linear sprinting, they’re going to be doing jumping, they’re going to be doing change of direction. Then we got some positions specific stuff that they’re gonna be doing. Every kid is gonna rotate to the position even if it’s o-line you just never know what kid will play that position. They can play running back or something and end up playing d-line or linebacker or something. So, we’re just gonna let them get a taste of everything today.”

Many aspiring young athletes showed up to learn from some of the best football minds in the area, but they weren’t the only ones supporting Wilson’s camp.

“I got some old college teammates, I got some local high school coaches,” Wilson said. “It’s cool, especially like my college teammates, Tyler White, Josh, Khari Dotson, those guys coming from Houston just to come up to help, it means a lot.”