Silver and Black Report

By DeMarcus Davis, S&B Report Staff Writer

Alameda, CA – Two hundred and fifty young boys and girls from the ages of 8-14 descended upon the Oakland Raiders Alameda facility to embark on a two-day Skills Camp sponsored by the California Police Youth Charities.

Not only were the children given the opportunity to get out and enjoy the beautiful Bay Area weather this weekend, but to learn fundamental football drills on the very same practice fields the Silver & Black prepare on. The youths in attendance learned proper football techniques from local football coaches from various Oakland area schools, along with Raider coaches that were on hand teaching kids how to tackle, break on the ball defensively, run passing routes, and a whole multitude of other football skills.

All the youths huddled up with the Oakland Raiders

The children had so much fun, that one 3 foot 6 inch tall, approx. 80lb. participant, was so highly impressed with his own acrobatic behind the head catch, (mostly from a slight lack of hand/eye coordination), that when he ran back to boast about his amazing grab, he waved his hand from side-to-side, imitating the very popular WWE wrestler John Cena with his signature ‘You can’t see me’, gesture. To the parents, don’t feel bad that you have no idea who John Cena is or what the ‘You can’t see me’ wave is all about. Just ask your child, I’m sure he or she will be GLAD demonstrate it for you.

Rookie Darren McFadden was an active participant during the youth camp

Besides working with the coaches, the children also had an army of Raider rookies to show them the ropes. Rookies Darren McFadden, Chaz Schilens and Tyvon Branch, along with 10 more of their teammates gave the children a rare opportunity to rub shoulders with starts they likely will only see from a distance at a Raider home game or on television. Even Oakland Raiders’ CEO Amy Trask was actively involved with the children, which comes to no surprise as she is ALWAYS mingling with the kids and fans on game day and is in general the most fan-interactive CEO you will ever come to know.

However, the most popular thing going on during this charity even wasn’t a player, coach, or Raider official. The team’s mobile water cooler/dispenser was obviously the coolest thing on the planet since God created peanut butter and jelly. It’s really just a traditional “igloo” type cooler that’s filled with water, has a series of drinking tubes that run from it, and a motorized pump that siphons the water up into and out of the tubes. Initially, the kids were dumbfounded on how to get the water out of it. They kept turning the little dial on the ends of the tubes, but now water would come out. It wasn’t until a coach came to their aide and flipped on the power switch to turn on the mini pump and…INSTANT FOUNTAIN! One would think that Kool-Aid or soda was coming out of this thing the way they were deeply fascinated with it. The other coaches were trying to call them all back to finish the drills, but the kids were all too busy drinking water from the coolest magical water jug ever to grace the Earth.