For the Mayer Brothers, AJ and Michael, it was a time to come home and relive all the good football memories of their own careers here.
For the more than 150 grade-schoolers at Covington Catholic’s Wooten Field Saturday, it was time to start making some memories of their own.
“We haven’t had much time to step back and do that,” said AJ, who will graduate this month from Miami of Ohio and move on for his final football season as the quarterback pursues an MBA at Arkansas State.
Michael, meanwhile, will move into Season 3 at Notre Dame, as the top college tight end in the nation. “I haven’t been back for a while,” he said of the big turnout of kids, coaches, parents, sponsors, and some just plain fans. “This is awesome.”
And pretty much what the CovCath alumni brothers had hoped for when they started texting one another after the NCAA passed the NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) legislation allowing college athletes to benefit financially from putting their names on — and helping to run — camps, among other things) where they could be paid for their work as athletes.
Luckily for them, one of the big names – ProCamps — in sports clinics for kids is right here in Cincinnati. “We do about 160 of them worldwide,” said Craig James, an Elder High football coach with a very big presence who personally presides over 16 of these a year.
“What we liked about this one was how local it was,” James said, “that’s what makes it really good . . . the Mayers are great and so are the coaches . . . but in the end, it’s all about the athletes.”
There were 20 high school coaches running the groups divided up by age – eight of them from CovCath – with head coaches Eddie Eviston of CovCath and Ben Nevels of Covington Holmes both in attendance.
But it was the participation of the Mayers that made this special. “They sat right where you are,” James told the assembled campers, that included two girls, to start of the day. And here the college guys were, slapping hands, bumping elbows, and doing drills with the kids.
“What’s my name?” one of the kids challenged Michael to see if he remembered him before Michael went on to spend a good bit of time consoling another one of the younger campers after he finished an age-group race and was crying at how things ended. Then the youngster, having been consoled, was worried about finding his group. Michael helped him there as well. “Come to me if you need anything,” were his parting words to the young guy.
As one group after another of the 20 finished the first speed trial, Michael had the same encouraging message: “That was a fast group,” he would tell them at the finish line.
But there were swim drills to work, with Michael and AJ as the defenders. “I like the Notre Dame shoes,” Michael said to one young man for his green and gold sneakers in a drill. In fact, “I like” prefaced much of what Michael had to say to the campers as they went through their drills. This was no boot camp but very much a positive place.
There were photos to take as the brothers jumped from one sit-down group to another. And T-shirts and autographed cards to hand out. And races to run. And lots of fun to be had.
“Three things I want to talk about,” AJ told the campers as a group. “One, be a good person . . . listen to your parents. Two, academics. Michael’s at Notre Dame and I’m about to graduate with my degree this month. And three, play as many sports as you can. You guys are all young.”
As far as their own futures, AJ – after three seasons at Miami – is off to Arkansas State after choosing the Jonesboro, Ark. School over Idaho, Ohio U. and Indiana State. But next fall the brothers will re-unite – almost – the first two weeks of the football season.
“We open at The Shoe,” Michael says of that rare Notre Dame-Ohio State matchup in Columbus. “He plays Ohio State Week 1,” AJ said, “we play them Week 2.” And yes, they say, expect for some brotherly scouting intelligence to be passed along.
“I have a ton of confidence in our new coaches,” Michael says of the staff headed by former University of Cincinnati defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman. It’s a theme with the brothers. The Arkansas State head coach who won AJ over is former Cincinnati head coach Butch Jones.
Like so many sporting events in Northern Kentucky, the lead sponsors here were the combo of OrthoCincy and St. Elizabeth Healthcare, even to the extent of providing an on-site trainer for the day.
