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BEATRICE, Neb (NCN) - Its not every day a young athlete in Nebraska gets the chance to share a field with an NFL player, especially not one who hails from the same hometown.
About 300 kids in Beatrice got that opportunity Friday morning when a local legend returned home.
Hes a Pickrell native and former football player for the Orangemen and the Cornhuskers, and now a Super Bowl-winning center for the Philadelphia Eagles.
But Friday morning, Cam Jurgens played the role of clinic coach, returning to the field that now bears his name to headline the first Camp Jurgy youth football camp.
It was just a lot of fun, I remember being a little kid running around here...to have the opportunity to have someone come back here, I would have been going crazy as a kid.
And the kids were going crazy, it was a great environment, Jurgens said Friday.
Its really cool getting to see the whole community come out.
It wasnt so much about learning football and getting better, it was about having fun, a community event, and just showing people what its like and what it can be anything can happen.
It was a blast.
Cam hit me up a couple weeks ago and was like, hey are you able to come down to this, and I was like heck yeah! said Cole Payton, an Omaha Westside and North Dakota State alum who was drafted by the Eagles this April.
Just had a blast with the kids, and thats what its about finding a way to give back and help a now teammate out.
Were given a platform like this, and this is a great way to give back.
Were in the middle of Nebraska, a small town, and theres hundreds of kids here that look up to Cam, and look up to us, through the sport we love.
The big thing today is just to get the kids out, have some fun, compete a lot, sweat a lot, and come away with a great memory and obviously get some autographs too, said Wade Halvorsen, who is entering his first year as the head football coach at Beatrice High.
Theres a strong tradition thats been built by previous coaches and previous players, and this is just another example of somebody that had a great high school experience, a great football experience, coming back, and now these kids get to learn from him.
Close to 300 local kids between third and eighth grade took the field at the House of Orange Friday morning, catching passes and competing in drills, and learning from current Beatrice varsity players and coaches.
Not to mention, professional caliber players, like Jurgens or his new teammate Payton, who headed to a town about ninety minutes from where he grew up with the goal of educating and energizing a new crop of football players in his home state.
Its cool to have a few Nebraska guys on the Eagles roster, and weve got to stick together, so its been super fun helping him out, Payton said.
I think that was kind of Cams message was just for us to bring the energy, bring the juice for these guys, and just have a ton of fun with them.
Maybe impart some wisdom and teach them a couple things, but just have fun with them thats what its about.
For Halvorsen, who is preparing for his first season as the head coach of the team that will compete on this field in the fall, an event like this and a role model like Jurgens could serve to rekindle a passion for football in the greater Beatrice community.
The most important thing, I think, with this is that the kids get to see somebody that walked the halls, someone that played Bombers, played middle school, played high school, someone they can relate to, he said.
And then community-wise, it just kind of ignites football again, it gets people excited to play football the excitement is infectious right now, so weve just got to keep things rolling.
It took a lot of work from the local level and beyond to put a full morning like this together, but none of it would be possible without someone with the social cachet and lasting local influence of Cam Jurgens, who relished the opportunity to return to a place that has helped provide him a path to pro football.
Giving some of these kids high fives and theyre like, Im never going to wash my hand again! And Im like alright, I could definitely see myself saying that as a kid! Jurgens said with an earnest laugh.
It is cool I was even looking up to the high schoolers when I was their age, and now us being able to come back here, I cant imagine being in their shoes.
Coming back here and being able to be that role model for them, it means a lot, and coming back here to Beatrice and the Cam Jurgens field looking down there...its pretty surreal.
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