The following weekend both Nesmith and Vaughn came back to BigBear.ai Performance Center. This time, they brought several of their players with them. On Saturday, June 20, Washington hosted a clinic highlighted by a Fastest Man competition, a sevenon-on-seven tournament and a Big Man Challenge.
“A lot of my kids don’t get outside of the inner city that often, so it was a great experience,” Vaughn said. “Being able to compete on the same field that the Commanders practice on, that was huge. It was an honor to be out there, and the kids had fun.”
Competing this time of year, with the first high school games just around the corner, is valuable. Nesmith appreciated the passing game, passing coverage, timing and spacing things his guys could work on during the 7v7 tournament.
“An organized opportunity like this is an opportunity for us to get more reps. We bring a camera all the time and film it so we can teach off of it. So, it’s extremely valuable in that way,” the Paint Branch coach said.
In addition to the competition experience gained, these players were gifted high-quality seven-on-seven helmets.
“We’re going to use those for the rest of the summer. Such an awesome, thoughtful and useful gift,” Nesmith said. “That’s another big worry of mine during seven-on-seven is these collisions, and those helmets they gave are of great quality.”
Linemen from the participating programs also felt the love and got a chance to get better on the day. Sometimes this unit can be overlooked, Nesmith acknowledged, so it’s always exciting when a Big Man Challenge is featured.
“They see their brothers go out for seven-on-seven all over the state, and they stay home jealous,” Nesmith said with a laugh. “Washington provided individual coaches who were drilling them on high-level techniques for an hour before they started the [Big Man] competition, so that was extremely valuable.”
Whether it was coaching, competition or celebration, the clinics aimed to show the Commanders are here to support high school football programming in a holistic way. These coaches and kids represent the future, and Washington is here to be a resource for support and inspiration.
“We just love our kids being involved and that they have something to inspire them and let them know that anything is possible if they work hard and keep the focus,” Vaughn said.