NFL star Stephon Gilmore holds first youth football camp in Rock Hill

Taking a break from a tag football scrimmage during his youth football camp Wednesday morning, Stephon Gilmore stepped over toward the sideline to snap a photo with a fan.

“Celebrity timeout,” yelled Devonte Holloman, who starred alongside Gilmore on South Pointe’s juggernaut 2008 state championship football team.

The pair were joined by other former teammates and a slew of current Stallions at the school for Gilmore’s first youth football camp in Rock Hill since he was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 2012.

A grinning Gilmore yelled back at Holloman’s mocking with a “c’mon man!” and jogged back into a game involving no one older than middle school-age. Gilmore has never been one to boast about celebrity - or anything for that matter - but he is aware of the unique platform from which he can address kids, especially those in his home town.

“I always wanted to go to camps growing up and they didn’t really have any camps in Rock Hill,” said Gilmore during a break in the action. “I always said if I made it to the NFL I would come back and do some camps for some kids and help motivate them to get to where I’m at.”

Besides Holloman, a host of other former South Carolina Gamecocks and NFL players were present Wednesday. Jadeveon Clowney supported his former teammate by showing up, and another Rock Hill NFL star, Johnathan Joseph, was also present. Current and former Stallion players flooded the field beneath a shirt-drenching sun.

“It’s fun,” said Gilmore, who helped South Pointe win the school’s first state title in 2008 and later starred at the University of South Carolina. “I went to this high school, it brings back memories and we’re just coming out here trying to have a good time, and teach the kids some fundamentals and teach them how to compete.”

Along with Gilmore’s camp, kids in Rock Hill could have also attended a recent camp put on by Joseph, as well as the Sylvia Circle Demons’ camp last month, which featured Clowney. Everyone asked Wednesday agreed it’s a special thing for a town of 60,000 people to have so much accessible NFL talent for young people.

“This is a new era for Rock Hill,” said Linda Gilmore, Stephon’s mom and the camp’s t-shirt maven. “It’s supposed to be the Football City, right?”

Few in Rock Hill could provide a better role model than Gilmore. He not only stood out on the football field but was also an ace in the classroom throughout his academic career and laid low outside of school, stiff-arming any potential trouble.

“The most important thing is what Stephon just talked to them about right there, that this is all about hard work,” said South Pointe football coach Strait Herron. “Football is fun but there’s a lot more that goes into it. The grades, the character, and then of course, football is really last.”

Herron remembers Gilmore showing up early before school for study hall and tutoring, and then more tutoring sessions in the afternoon.

“It’s not lip service,” Herron said. “He worked really hard with football, and in the classroom.”

South Pointe assistant football coach Nakkia McCloud first met Gilmore when he was a ninth grader at South Pointe and he views him as a little brother. McCloud recognizes the weight that Gilmore’s voice carries with younger people, including McCloud’s own son, Nick.

“Parents can say it, but to be able to see it is another thing,” he said.

Gilmore recently joined McCloud in parenthood. Gilmore married his college sweetheart, former South Carolina track and field standout Gabrielle Glenn, last year and they welcomed their first child, a boy named Sebastian, about three months ago.

“Having his own kid, he sees little boys differently,” said Linda Gilmore, the newly minted grandmother. “He’s always around men when you play football. I think it makes him want to give back even more.”

Sebastian’s arrival, “changed my life,” said Gilmore. He already planned to host a camp in Rock Hill, but his feelings about the idea grew stronger as a father.

“It’s a different world now for him,” said Herron. “I think this kind of shows what he’s becoming.”

Gilmore’s camp filled up quickly even without much publicity, and Linda expects there to be even more kids involved next summer now that organizers better know how the camp will run and the amount of interest from the city.

She was tickled to bits that her son has an increasing presence in his hometown. Gilmore and his budding family are living in Charlotte in the offseason, meaning more time for grandma to spend with Sebastian, and more time for Stephon to give his time back to the youth of Rock Hill, even if he requires the odd celebrity timeout.

“I’ve just been waiting on this type of thing to happen,” said Linda Gilmore, beaming proudly that the wait is over.

This story was originally published July 8, 2015 at 3:58 PM with the headline "NFL star Stephon Gilmore holds first youth football camp in Rock Hill."