Led by current and former local collegiate players, Overlea mentors local youth through athletics
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In his first season of managing football operations for the New Overlea Youth Football Program, Eric Thomas has vowed to provide program mentorship to instill each member with a sense of self worth, while touching and impacting the young lives in the community.
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During the summer of 2022, the Orangemen & Raiders will host their 1st Annual Youth Football and Cheer camp. The camp will be free and held on the football field at Fullerton Elementary and Overlea High School from 9AM to 12 PM. The focus of the camps will be to provide campers with fundamental knowledge of cheer and football. A host of former college players as counselors, will stress the fundamentals on the field with a rotation among 10-12 stations, each headed by a counselor. While the younger players are on the field, the older group will meet to gain wisdom about the program’s founders, which include the introduction to a set of expectations that each player is expected to follow. They were borne from the core values of integrity, honor and respect and included such requests as community service and academic excellence.
Being able to provide the kids with current teaching and coaching techniques is a driving force behind the program. As the game has progressed, the way we communicate and teach the game has to change as well. This is a major factor in seeking and recruiting these young athletes. As they seek to extend their football careers, what better way to introduce them to Acts of Service than serving community and children., keeping them off the streets and providing parents a few hours of relief to know their children are safe.
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Overlea offers more than football. Overlea Cheer Team is a National Cheer Champion where cheerleading teams also finished first, first and second at regionals to earn bids to Florida where they placed fourth, fourth and eighth in national competition.
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As stated in our mission statement and objectives, the Overlea Football Program aims to instill the Village Mentality where life-long values of family, teamwork, dedication, commitment and work ethic on and off the field. To that end, Thomas, the Overlea Football Director, and a few former NFL players such as Jackson Hawkins (Arkansas University and Dallas Cowboys), Marc Lester (Morgan State Univ, Baltimore Ravens) and Rafael Cooper (Louisville, Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers) along with Vernon Miller (Parkville High and McDaniel College) and Brandon Thomas (Eastern Tech, McDaniel College and Bowie State) are proud to provide the program with progressive teaching and leadership.