ST. GEORGE — Nixon Rush looked forward to Saturday for a long time.

The 9-year-old student at South Mesa Elementary School was among hundreds of children attending a football camp at Greater Zion Stadium on the campus of Dixie State University.

“I wanted to have fun and work hard,” Rush told St. George News after he ran through a pass-catching drill.

The camp was put on by the Southern Utah Athletic Foundation (SUAF) with the help of several corporate sponsors, including Intermountain Healthcare who provided the medical care on-site.

Current Raiders safety, and former Utah State University stand-out, Dallin Leavitt, attended the camp to conduct drills and teach the youngsters.

“That was cool and fun,” Rush said about meeting Leavitt, adding that he felt the NFL player could help teach him important football lessons.

Leavitt, in between drills on the field, said that he was one of the first Raiders to sign up when heard there was a camp for kids in St. George.

“It’s just an opportunity to come hang out with kids and show them the great game of football,” Leavitt said. “Get to play a little football and be around the community.”

Leavitt was a highly recruited high school player in Portland, Oregon before he played for Utah State and BYU. He’s been with the Raiders for four years.

“For the first five years of my life outside of the home I lived in Utah,” Leavitt said. “It’s kind of where I grew up a little bit. So it’s good to come back home for sure.”

The camp was for boys and girls. There were no pads or helmets or game situations. Instead there were passing, running, catching and rushing drills.

Current Dixie State University players were on hand to help run the kids through their exercises. 

Lacie Bleak, vice president of SUAF, was thrilled with the turnout and the level of enthusiasm and participation at the camp.

“We have been so lucky,” Bleak said. “We had so many kids register, and we had so many people from the community reach out and ask to help. We had companies and so many sponsors that were so giving.”

“We couldn’t have done it without them or the volunteers and parents and coaches from local high schools and colleges around. We are so excited,” she added. “This is our first camp and so we didn’t know what to expect. This is better than we could have expected.”

Event sponsors included Built Bar, Intermountain Healthcare, Ken Garff Ford Lincoln, Body Armour, PinkBox Doughnuts, Tagg N Go Carwash, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Goat haircuts and Chik-fil-A

“We’re so grateful that Dallin Leavitt came to donate his time to come help our kids in St. George,” Bleak said. “I think that says a lot about him. He came here to make sure that the kids love the game as much as he does.”

One of the highlights at the camp was an hour-long adaptive session devoted to helping kids with special needs. There were at least 25 kids who got to work with Leavitt during that part of the event.

Local coach Brandon Vandermyde helped put on the session for special needs children. He said his desire to participate was kindled after going to a similar camp last year with his son, Mason.

“I’ve worked with special needs kids for four or five years,” Vandermyde said. “Mike Cutler (camp organizer) got to know me and my son last year and asked if I wanted to help with an adaptive camp. So here we are.”

The Dixie State football players on hand told Vandermyde that they hoped to help again in the future.

“Every single one of them came up to me afterwards and said, ‘Hey, let’s do this again. We want in. We want in.’ And there were probably about 30 other volunteers who said the same thing,” Vandermyde said.

Vandermyde added that he is putting together a database of special needs children who want to participate in sports camps like the one on Saturday.

“I want to be that hub that people can go to and say, ‘Hey, I need a list of special kids you know who want to participate in these things.’ You participate once and you want to keep doing it,” he said.

Anyone who wants to participate in the database can email Vandermyde at [email protected].

Vandermyde got a little emotional when he thanked Leavitt for coming to the camp.

“He’s a good dude,” Vandermyde said. “He was so cool. He’s got some experience with special needs kids so when he found out about it he said, ‘Hey. I want in.’ A lot of these kids understand that he’s important, and that meant a lot to them.”

Ed. note: This report has been clarified to indicate that Intermountain Healthcare was a sponsor of the event.

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