Nearly 100 youth gathered at the Ellsworth High School football field on July 21 for a fundamentals and skills camp with Kaden Davis.

Davis, a 2017 graduate of Ellsworth Junior-Senior High School, was drafted to the Denver Broncos this spring.

“I want to teach the kids some fundamentals,” he said. “I went to stuff like this out of town, and realized how helpful it is.”

Fellow Bearcat Takota Anderson joined Davis for the camp.

“We’re doing it for free,” said Anderson, a 2015 graduate from Ellsworth. “We don’t like to charge for something we never had.”

Anderson played at Dodge City Community College and Kansas Wesleyan University. Following college, he played indoor arena football in Amarillo, Texas.

“Me and Kaden were the first ones out of Ellsworth to play college football for four years,” he said. “We grew up in the same shoes as these kids. We never had anybody to give back. That’s the reason we do it.”

Davis played football at Butler Community College, and then Northwest Missouri State University, where he was the Honorable Mention All-MIAA selection at wide and also named to the National Football Foundation’s Hampshire Honor Society.

Youth were divided into two age brackets. Fourth through sixth graders attended first, with seventh through seniors attending second.

Mick Metcalf, 11, from Geneseo, attended the first session.

“I found out you’re supposed to put your hands close to your chest when you’re in a stance for running back or wide receiver,” he said.

Students broke up into several groups, rotating through.

“My favorite was hitting the defensive back,” said Metcalf, who will enter fifth grade this fall. “I like defense.”

This is the second year for the camp. Last year, about 50 youth attended; this year, the number almost doubled.

“I think I saw a couple of Suburbans with Salina kids,” said athletic director Ron Davis, who is also Kaden’s father.

The camp was open to any attendee.

Taylen Morales, who will be a freshman at Hoisington High School, attended the second session.

“Once I saw the camp, I wanted to go because football is my favorite sport,” he said. “It was a good experience, getting camp from someone who made it to the next level past college.”

The camp was worth the trip from out of town.

“The part that helped me the most was the footwork drills that we kept doing,” Morales said. “That’s what I need help with.”

Ron Davis said when Kaden was growing up, he had to take his son to out-of-town camps.

“I think the most important thing is to see our youth come and give back,” he said. “It speaks volumes of the kids we’re trying to raise. We want them to become leaders for their peers.”

The younger Davis is thought to be the first graduate from Ellsworth to be drafted into the NFL. He attended rookie minicamp for a week and then OTA (offseason workouts) for four weeks.

“We got a five week break,” Davis said.

He squeezed in the camp in Ellsworth before reporting for training camp on Monday with 89 other players.

“There will be 53 on the active roster and 16 on the practice squad,” Davis said. “Everyone is competing for a job every day.”