Illinois defensive back Tailon Leitzsey did some research during the spring about a shooting that occurred in his Urbana community and found that the person using the gun was a 14-year-old kid.

In response to a higher crime rate in his community – and the entire United States – in the last year, Leitzsey decided he was wanted to be an inspiration to kids and that he wants to give back to his community, so he organized a free football camp for kids aged 6-13 at Zahn Field on July 17.

“I wanted to be able to kind of help the youth before they get to that point (of going down the wrong path),” Leitzsey said. “Help the youth before they get to the point where they need to feel like they need to do that. That’s where the ideas came to have a free camp for the community.”

Leitzsey began organizing the camp at the conclusion of spring football, and even with the new landscape in college athletics around name, image, and likeness opportunities he never wanted the camp to be a way for him to make a few extra dollars.

“I was working on doing a free camp before NIL even passed,” Leitzsey said. “I really want to give back. It’s not about money for me. It’s about helping kids not going down that route. If they can come to this camp and learn something that keeps them off the path they might be doing down.”

Organizing a kid’s camp is difficult, especially when you think about the details surrounding waivers and the risk that still surrounds the pandemic. Leitzsey was able to find help in the form of Liz Reyes, an assistant athletic director for student-athlete development in the Illinois’ athletic department.

“We wanted to him out with the information that we can provide,” Reyes said. “He’s created everything. The Google form, the graphics, contacting the youth groups. AT this point we are checking in every other day. It’s just so cool to see him blossom and see him get to this point on his own. He’s running this whole thing on his own. He’s what you want in your young adults.”

Aside from the organizational help from Reyes and the Illinois athletic department, Leitzsey was delighted to receive helping hands from close to 30 of his teammates. Leitzsey said he was nearly overcome with emotion at the response from his teammates.

“It just this is about family,” Leitzsey said. “They are really my brothers. I almost cried. They really understand how important this is. They were willing to give up two hours of their time, no pay, to come to help out.”

Leitzsey said the help from his teammates is going to help connect with the kids, which is something that he hopes the camp is going to really do.

“I think for me, it’s being authentic,” Leitzsey said. “Telling them my story. Sharing my knowledge and the other 30 guys doing the same thing. We are all at a great university playing college football, so we have made some good decisions to get to this point in life. I really feel like it’s one of those things that is just going to happen. When you hear someone talking, it will sound like something you went through. I hope the kids realize that we are there to support them.”

As far as organizing drills and other activities, Leitzsey is still putting together all the pieces. With kids ranging from 6-13, he knows that there is going to be a large gap in the skill level and other aspects of the game.

“I’m actually going to call Nate Hobbs because he just ran a camp and some tips from him,” Leitzsey said. “That’s a big age range, 6-13, you have little kids and kids about to get into high school. The skill level is obviously going to be a little bit different so matching the drills to that is kind of what I’m working on right now.”

Leitzsey hopes that the camp provides kids in the Champaign community an opportunity to look up to someone in an effort of avoiding the wrong path in life.

“It’s one of the things that I want to be able to do in life, is help people,” Leitzsey said. “Inspiring other people. There were a lot of people that inspired me to do more and be better. I want to do the same thing for someone else.”

Leitzsey has two years of eligibility remaining in college, and he plans to continue organizing the camp in future years. His ultimate goal is to inspire children, so one day they have the opportunity to do the same thing.

“I think dreams all start with something you saw,” Leitzsey said. “There are kids who are going to want to do this, here or at another school. To see someone else do it and ask questions, I think that is very important.”