Former NFL player helps young football players prep for season kickoff

Opening day for the Oswego Youth Tackle Football season is less than two weeks away, and young athletes were already busy honing their skills on Tuesday afternoon at Elite Sports Performance in Oswego.

Former NFL wide receiver and Oswego resident Macey Brooks hosted a three-hour USA Football FUNdamentals clinic for athletes age 8-11 years old to work on drills and other fundamentals at the premier sports and fitness training center.

"I tell the kids often that if I had 10 percent of this, I wouldn't know them. I would probably still be playing," Brooks said. "I didn't have this type of structure. My mother was my supporter and my dad gave me my frame, but he wasn't an athlete. He worked a lot; he was a First Sergeant. It was my mom taking me to practices, cheering me on and calling me 'pumpkin.' Other than that, there was no help.

"I just got lucky and really enjoyed the game. That would be one of the biggest things that helped me as an athlete."

Brooks was a 1997 fourth-round NFL draft pick by the Dallas Cowboys, and his resume includes time with the Chicago Bears (1998-2000). Most recently in 2012, he joined the ownership of the Kane County Dawgs, where he also worked as the team's wide receivers coach, as well as strength and conditioning coordinator.

He's happy to be settled in with the Oswego community to offer his insight and work ethic to help motivate young athletes.

"I dreamed about it at one point in my young life, but this just kind of came about. Kids wanted to get faster, learn how to throw the ball, catch, and this is an extension of that," Brooks said. "I go to different camps across the country. I hear that it helps from the parents. There's a point where these young athletes stop listening to their dad and want someone else to look up to. I guess I serve that purpose. Even though they know I played ball, they don't care about what I know until they know I care about them. Once they realize I care about them, the fact that I played ball goes out the window and they're really eager to listen to what it is I'm trying to tell them to make them better. They're not here for me. They're here for themselves."

USA Football is the official youth football development partner in the NFL, and OYTF is Oswego's largest and longest tenured youth sports program, now entering its 36th season. Brooks is one of the founding members of ESP and focuses his time on football position training and speed and agility.

"We just want them to be better, coachable athletes. If they're coachable, they can get better," Brooks said.

OYTF, which also has a partnership with Premier Gymnastics for its cheerleading program, utilizes ESP to help its athletes prepare for the upcoming season. OTYF is undergoing big changes for 2015, providing all new equipment and uniforms and competing in a new league – the Midwest Big 12 – for athletes in grades 1-8. The season officially begins on July 27 with the first practice.

"This is a great opportunity because a lot of them come from baseball and soccer and some kids don't play any sports until football starts up again, so to get back out there and go over the fundamentals is nice. With this clinic, they're breaking it all the way down to basic fundamentals to a little bit more advanced stuff," said Bob Perry, OYTF community relations director. "We're very thankful that Macey and ESP are able to do something like this for us."

The OYTF Board of Directors has been busy throughout the offseason working to iron out all the changes set to take place this fall, beginning with the new league. OYTF formerly played in the Tri-County League, but will now face Yorkville, Kaneland, Burlington, DeKalb, Plano, Sandwich and St. Raphael.

There are also changes to the team structure, eliminating weight restructions for 11U through eighth grade teams, which allows classmates to play on the same team. This will create a better transition into the high school level.

"This is my third year on the board and it has been by far the craziest," Perry said. "We bought brand new, top-rated equipment from Riddell. We didn't know what league we were going to be in. The league we were in fell apart. Once we figured that out, we had to break up the teams. We've been working on doing more in the community like ESP and Premier Gymnastics. We're working closely with both high schools and getting insight from them. Our goal is to make sure that all the kids going into high school are familiar with the sport and have a background on what the schools are doing in both football and cheerleading. We want to make the transition easier."

The season openers will take place on Aug. 22 and run through mid-October with playoffs.

"It's exciting times," Perry said.