When Rennie Curran was a high school player in Snellville, he would have only dreamed of spending time with accomplished NFL players such as Ray Lewis, Tony Jones and Deon Grant.
He arrived at 360 Football Academy, which is aimed at fostering youth athletic and academic skills, to find that for 100 high school players, it was both a wonderful and harsh reality.
The yearlong program concluded a week-long intensive academy at Georgia Tech on Friday, where attendees included more than a dozen former and current NFL players and some of the state’s top high school recruits.
During on-field practices Wednesday, a unit of offensive linemen received orders from Jones, who started in two Super Bowls for the Denver Broncos.
“How much more time you need?” barked a voice across the field.
“An hour,” Jones responded with a laugh, as his players sprawled out wearily around a water cooler.
But as much as the rigorous practices on the field resembled a professional training camp, that was not the sole focus of the week.
In addition to on-field training with professional players, the week featured SAT and ACT prep from Kaplan, NCAA-rules-and-regulations seminars and basic money-management courses.
Side by side, Hannibal Navies and Lewis barked orders to a group of attentive linebackers. But at the end of the day, the co-founders of the program said they weren’t preaching football.
“We’re preaching college,” said Navies, who played nine seasons in the NFL. “The main goal is to try and get you to college.”
The academy’s mission statement includes a goal to see 99 percent of its participants attend college on an academic or athletic scholarship. Navies said he and Lewis hope to expand the program to cities with big NFL markets over the next few years.
Despite being one of the most dominant linebackers of his time, Lewis wasn’t interested in selling the athletic dream. He said that he had witnessed too many failures during his upbringing in Florida.
“Being raised the way I was raised, I know that if you catch them early you can save them,” Lewis said. “It’s easy to sell kids on the athletic dream. Maybe you pull one aside, maybe you say, let’s also explore this avenue -- an academic avenue. Because when that reality sunk in for 12 to 15 of my homeboys, they had no other avenues. They were on the corner selling drugs.”
James Vaughters, a top recruit from Tucker High School, was in attendance for the week and joined by two of his teammates and Franklin Stephens, his coach.
Stephens said that the messages from Lewis and other professional athletes seemed to resonate with the young athletes.
“This is a great camp when you see what they have to offer,” Stephens said. “They are talking to kids about their social options. They are getting NCAA academics options from here. And they are getting it from the pros. Experience is a great teacher.”
Many veterans spent time answering the questions of the aspiring athletes.
And though Curran’s own experience in the NFL just began, he jumped at the opportunity to help others who seemed just years removed from where he is today.
“For me, growing up here and coming back and seeing them reminds me of myself,” Curran said. “Just trying to make my dreams come true. Hopefully I can give them something that will motivate them to take the right step.”
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