Belle Chasse, La. — Former John Curtis and LSU football stand-out, Duke Riley, was busy at work Saturday, putting-on a youth football camp back in Belle Chasse.
“This field here is where I grew-up playing at,” Riley said. “I scored touchdowns. I made tackles right here. I’m from Plaquemines Parish. Here was easy for the people from Buras, down that way, Venice, to come and it’s just like 10 minutes from the city. So it’s just a good area where all people can come to so that’s why I wanted it here. Just the background I had here and just show people where I come from and let people meet my family. The first group was really good. We had a good turn-out. The kids had a good time.”
Riley, who’s now entering his second year in the NFL as a linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons, hosted his first youth football camp at Cypress Park, in what he hopes to be an annual event. He had a bunch of former and current teammates back to help-out with the camp, including Donte Jackson, Deion Jones, DJ Chark, Terrence Magee, Rickey Jefferson and Leonard Fournette to name a few.
The morning session was for kids ages 8-13, and the afternoon session was for ages 14-18. The second session ended-up being cancelled because of heavy storms, but Riley was very happy with the turn-out for the morning session and for all the support he got with the camp.
“You know Mother Nature, we can’t control it, but we’re going to be doing it every year,” Riley said. “We had a lot of kids out. We had a lot of guys out supporting me. We had at least 20 to 30 of my former teammates here, out here working with the kids. Helping-out with the kids and giving back. It was just a blessing. That’s what it’s all about at the end of the day– the kids. That’s what we do it for.”
