LIHU’E — Vidinha Stadium took on a festive atmosphere Saturday. It was a field of white punctuated by the colorful jerseys of NFL players who appeared to participate in the annual NFL Youth Clinic . About 120-30 students, including several
LIHU’E — Vidinha Stadium took on a festive atmosphere Saturday. It was a field of white punctuated by the colorful jerseys of NFL players who appeared to participate in the annual NFL Youth Clinic .
About 120-30 students, including several from high school football teams, attired in special white Pro Bowl 25th Anniversary T-shirts, braved the chilly morning trades for an opportunity to go one-on-one with the NFL football players.
The players are in Hawai’i to participate in the 25th Pro Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 8 at Aloha Stadium on O’ahu. The game starts at 2:30 p.m.
Stacey Kennedy of the NFL, a manager who accompanied the contingent that opened up a week-long schedule of pre-Pro Bowl activities, said the football clinics are done only for the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl. Some 3,000 students attended the Super Bowl clinic being held in Houston this year.
Kennedy plans to return to Kaua’i tomorrow when Itula Mili of the Seattle Seahawks, Henri Crockett of the Minnesota Vikings and cheerleader Kristin Beisel of the San Francisco 49ers are scheduled to visit two schools.
Roy Nishida, the county’s drug war coordinator, said players were chosen for Saturday’s clinic by recruiting through local schools in cooperation with the Kaua’i Chamber of Commerce. Only a limited number of participants were allowed.
Volunteers, also garbed in the white Pro Bowl attire, came from locals schools as well as from the Boys and Girls Club to help out the students.
Each of the ten participating NFL players headed up a section dealing with a football skill, with groups of students rotating through at intervals throughout the 2-hour clinic.
Cheerleaders taking part at the clinic was a new twist to the event, with Beisel, and Shantel Moncito of the San Diego Chargers working with a group of cheerleaders from local Pop Warner Football Association squads.
Each of the participating students went home with autographs of NFL players on the back of their commemorative T-shirts. Some students brought footballs to be autographed.
Many of the ten NFL players at the Kaua’i clinic have close ties to Hawai’i. Kevin Mawae of the New York Jets, has cousins living on Kaua’i, his father spending some time here.
Players hosting the clinic included Crockett and Chuck Wiley of the Minnesota Vikings, Ma’ake Keamoeatu of the Baltimore Ravens, Mili, Earl Little of the Cleveland Browns, Jed Weaver of the San Francisco 49ers, Jason Gesser of the Tennessee Titans, Mawae, Chris Naeoke of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Kynan Forney of the Atlanta Falcons.
