By Troy Vincent
National Football League
Troy Vincent recently transitioned from his role as Senior Vice President of NFL Player Engagement to Executive Vice President of NFL Football Operations. Player Engagement congratulates Troy and wishes him the best of luck in his new role.
Our PREP 100 Series Presented by Under Armour and the National Guard is suddenly turning into something very special in just its second year.
As always, there are a variety of reasons why we have reached maximum capacity early for our past few events, but one of the specific secrets to the instant success of the Series is our outstanding coaching—a strong example of our groundbreaking peer-to-peer strategy (players working with players). So it’s time to give them a shout-out. Not surprisingly, it starts at the top and in our case that is NFL Legend Eddie Mason, our Series Director of On-Field Operations.
Eddie has assembled an exceptional staff consisting of Offensive Coordinator Ladell Betts, Rich Bartel (QB), Jeff Blake (QB), Rock Cartwright (RB), Keenan Burton (WR), Leonard Stevens (WR), and George Hegamin (OL). On the other side of the ball, Defensive Coordinator Khary Campbell leads the way, and is assisted by Antico Dalton (LB), Roman Morris (DB), Stephon Morris (DB), Sudan Ellington (DL), and Dan McMunn (DL).
A special team to be sure, as Eddie articulates so well:
“It takes a unique group of guys to work with 120 kids in one day and make sure that each and every one is personally touched and taught about both life skills and football skills. The reason is that our coaches are high-character college graduates who are experienced in working with kids on a daily basis, so they know exactly how to do it right. They all have it in their heart to do this, so spending our Saturdays with this Series is right in our wheelhouse.”
On these Saturdays, a particular approach that Eddie and his staff promote is positive reinforcement.
“We follow the philosophy of working with our kids in a positive way, encouraging them to perform to the best of their abilities both on and off the field, which we believe is our secret sauce in achieving the results we have. It’s hard to find good people who subscribe to this approach, but we have managed to find this very rare quality in every one of our coaches.”
This style has set a standard that Eddie believes is the essence of our Series.
“We preach that the end game for our student-athletes is having high character, good values, and strong faith. We don’t want them to be just great football players, but great people as well. The biggest win for us is that they get an education, and not necessarily just four years in college, but aspiring to a Masters degree and beyond, setting them up for a successful life off the field.
The results already speak for themselves, as evidenced by our 2014 opening day in New Orleans on March 1. On that day, a student-athlete who had flown under recruiters’ radar got some much-needed exposure at the Saints facility, and within weeks he was signed to a scholarship.
A life changing event for this young man, and for us and our coaching staff as well.