The heat is strong during the South Texas summers. But that does not stop young boys and girls from attending a football camp that has become an institution in Alice, the Moe Hill Unity Football Camp.
Entering its eighth summer, the football camp welcomes boys and girls ages six and up where a team of coaches and former football players lead campers through drills. Each coach teaching skills needed for the game of football all while teaching the lessons of unity.
“We bring a wide range of age groups together to unify them and have the older ones mentor the young ones,” Moe Hill said.
Hill is a former Texas A&M Kingsville football player and had a brief stint in the pros. Now, he has become an icon in the Alice community; a role model to all.
“Being able to have someone like him in my life has allowed me to make strides,” Mark Garcia, a former football player for the Alice Coyotes said. “He is always giving back to the people in the community.”
The first day of the camp was a lot of talking. Campers arrived and listened to talks from Hill along with various members of the community preaching to the campers about the need to try their best, to give a maximum effort during all aspects of life.
“You have an opportunity to be better so let’s take advantage of this opportunity,” Hill said. “The only one who can get in their way is themselves.”
And their camp motto, printed on the back of every shirt, is one Hill believes applies to more than just the game of football but to the game of life as well.
“You’re gonna hit that wall no matter what you are doing be it in sports or in life and you got to find a way to push through,” Hill said. “That’s why we say ‘you’re tired? We’re just getting started.”
The camp will run every Saturday through July 27th.
