Local football product Benjamin St. Juste, a defensive back with the NFL’s Washington Commanders, held the third edition of his Back to Origins football camp last Saturday where over 400 youths, including more than 60 girls got to take part in the day long event. Held using the facilities of his old high school, Cure Antoine Labelle, St. Juste and an army of volunteers put the players through their paces on the turf and in the classroom. “It’s a blessing, just the fact that I’m still in a position to give back,” Benjamin St. Juste said. “Being in the NFL, that’s great individual accomplishment I’m going into my fourth year. All the hard work I put in this year, my reward is coming back here and giving back all the knowledge that I’ve acquired throughout the years in the NFL to these kids.”
One of the guest instructors was Jay Woods, who played his ball at Michigan and Duke. Making his first appearance here coach Woods was instructing the defensive backs. “It’s super important to give back to the kids because they’re one point in time we were those kids out there and somebody gave back to us,” Jay Woods said. “What Ben has going on right now, It’s just a beautiful thing.” The skill level Woods got to see impressed him. “There’s lots of ballers out here,” Woods said. “I’ve seen a lot of good plays made; both boys and girls, that’s a good thing to see. I just loving seeing them go around making plays and having fun.”
The camp having a good number of female players brought a big smile to the face of one of the guest instructors, Sara Parker, who plays for Concordia and the National flag team. Coach Parker was there as a quarterback coach. “Just having a camp and being open to all ages, whether it’s girls or guys, just including them, I think it’s a really big deal,” Sara Parker said. “A lot of them are showcasing their skills and they’re competing against guys and they’re looking pretty good out there. I think that’s it’s fun to see girls proving themselves on the field and showing that we belong here.”
For St. Juste, the camp is more than sharpening football skills, he wants the participants to take away more than that. “That’s one of the reasons why we have a lot of these conferences,” St. Juste said. “I want them to know that outside of football, there’s also a life that you need to build. You need to build yourself an identity in whatever it is. It can be in business, it can be in sports, it can be in marketing, whatever you want to do in life. There’s something that you can do outside that can mesh very well with football, and it creates a great balanced life.”
