Johnson football camp, career day to take place in April

Published 5:50 pm Wednesday, March 22, 2017

In just under a month, Michael Johnson will be back in Selma to host his annual football and cheer camp at Memorial Stadium.

Johnson, who plays for the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals, and the MJ93 Organization, will host a career readiness day April 21 at Wallace Community College Selma and the football and cheer camp on April 22. The career readiness day is for eighth graders only and most local schools have agreed to attend, said organizer and Michael’s mother Thomasene Johnson.

Typically, the career day is for juniors and seniors, but organizers decided this year to lower the age to eighth graders. This year they wanted to focus on younger students, who probably haven’t made decided which career they’d like to pursue.

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“They haven’t really made their mind up. They are just now thinking about it,” Thomasene said. “We are really excited about that end of it because it’s really coming together well. The business in the community have been real accepting and wanting to help us. We’ve got to do something for our young people, and I thought if we dropped the age that would be more beneficial.”

On Saturday, Michael Johnson and other former and current NFL players will lead the football and cheer portion of the camp. Last year, Carlos Dunlap and former NFL guard Cordaro Howard helped Michael lead the camp. At this point, it’s hard to know which players will tag along, but a couple of NFL players usually tagsalong with Michael.

The age for the camp has been dropped this year to 7 to 17, so even more children can attend this year.

The cost for each student to register for the camp is $20.

“That’ll help us get in a few more kids. The young ones always have a lot of fun. It’s fun for them, they get all that running out but for the older ones it’s a little bit more serious,” Thomasene said.

Sponsorships are also available for any business that would like to help out. They range from Super Bowl sponsor ($2500), touchdown sponsor ($1,000), field goal sponsor ($500), extra point sponsor ($250) and safety point sponsor ($100).

For more information or to register a child, visit www.mj93.org.