As Ohio State tight end Gee Scott Jr. watched a group of 230 special needs athletes go through numerous football drills at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center on Friday, it reminded him why he fell in love with the sport in the first place.
“It's amazing, man, just seeing all of these people, just the joy that they seem to have,” Scott said. “You can lose perspective on that really easily when you start to get so intricate into the football game and spending so many hours studying that sometimes you can forget that at the end of the day, you're actually playing a game. I think I'm actually receiving revelation as I'm even saying that. It is just still a game at the end of the day. And we put so much into it. But you're able to see here today the purest form of the game, and it's just pretty fun.”
Scott was among more than 40 Ohio State football players who helped coach the participants in Friday’s 11th annual Special Skills Football Invitational, where athletes with special needs had the opportunity to throw and catch passes, run the 40-yard dash, practice their ball carrying and tackling and play touch football on the same field where the Buckeyes practice.
Like Scott, potential starting quarterback Will Howard found perspective from the camp as he took a break from summer workouts to lead participants through throwing drills.
“Doing stuff like this is why we do what we do,” Howard said. “It gives me so much joy to see them have fun, and it brings us together as a team, because we're all out here having fun and trying to help them have a great time, too.
“You get caught up in the grind of (preparing for the season) a little bit, and obviously there's a lot of pressure on us, a lot of high expectations, but something like this, it puts things in perspective, and kind of puts life in perspective a little bit, and what's really important. Just the relationships that you have and the impact that you can have on people, and especially in the place that we're in and the opportunities we have to impact others and others that don't have the same gifts and talents that we do, that's the best part of it for me.”
Smiles could be found on the faces of the Buckeyes and the participating athletes alike throughout the two-hour camp as the Ohio State players coached the campers through the drills and encouraged them to celebrate their performance by showing off their best touchdown dances.
“It's always good to make people's day. I don't know if it does it on purpose, but it makes our day too,” linebacker Cody Simon said. “We get out here and get to encourage guys and girls to have fun and do their best, so it's a really great day.”
For new Ohio State players like transfer center Seth McLaughlin and freshman punter Nick McLarty, Friday’s camp showed them just how much it means to be a Buckeye.
“Every single one of these people out here, they love Ohio State, they hate the team up north,” McLaughlin said. “We've got a couple of people just talking to us about it and it really just shows the passion that everybody in this fan base has.”
McLarty, who just arrived at Ohio State this summer from Australia, said the camp demonstrated to him the kind of impact he can make on other people as a Buckeye.
“The whole point of me coming over to this country was to just sort of help out younger kids. So to have the opportunity to come out here and actually be able to spend time with kids, it's a great, great, great place to be,” McLarty said. “I don't think you truly realize how much of an impact you have until you have something like this day where kids are coming up to you. They're smiling to see you. They want autographs. And they just want to spend time with you.”
Friday’s camp was particularly special for Ohio State kicker Casey Magyar as he had the opportunity to coach his younger brother, Dylan Magyar, who was one of the participants in the camp. Both brothers soaked in the opportunity to spend some time together on what was a fun day for both of them.
“It's great to just hang out with him and see him compete, and it's also great to see all the guys that were out here,” Casey Magyar said. “I think we had like 40, 50 players come out and help with the camp, so it just really speaks to how great our program is.”
Friday’s camp was one of eight Special Skills Sports Camps being held across the state of Ohio this year. Additional camps coming up later this year include a baseball/softball camp at Bo Jackson’s Elite Sports in Hilliard on Aug. 23; a golf camp at Tartan Fields in Dublin on Sept. 4; a track and field invitational at the University of Rio Grande on Sept. 13; a tennis camp at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio on Sept. 25; a soccer camp at Historic Crew Stadium on Oct. 9; and a basketball camp at the University of Cincinnati’s Lindner Center on a date to be determined.
You can learn more about Special Skills Sports Camps, which are free for athletes to participate in, by visiting the organization’s website.
