This article was 1st published July 12th, 2009 and takes a look at head coach Tommy Reamon who help found the Hampton Roads Youth Foundation NFL camp which returns for it's 22nd year on Saturday.

For the past 13 years, the Peninsula NFL All-Star Football Camp has made its way to the Hampton Roads area and it has grown in popularity each year. The camps roots started over 25 years ago and can be traced back to current Landstown head coach Tommy Reamon who was the first person to establish a football camp in the Peninsula area.

"It started back in the 70's when I was playing," said Reamon who spoke to Virginiapreps during the NFL camp at Christopher Newport University. "I've always wanted to bring football camps to the area. When I was a kid we didn't have them, so I always promised I would start a camp if I made it to pro football which I did.

"The major difference between Reamon's first camp and the one held at CNU this year is the home area code of the players. Almost all the NFL superstars that attend the camps now went to high schools in the Hampton Roads area and colleges in Virginia.

"I had Walter Payton, Mean Joe Green, and Joe Theismann," Reamon said. "I was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers and they were the Superbowl guys back then. It's funny, here I am today at a camp with Mike Tomlin who's the head coach of the Steelers, yet he attended my camp years ago when he was in high school."

Tomlin, who attended several events this week in support of the Hampton Roads Youth Foundation, thanked Reamon at his tailgate two days earlier as well as his speech to the high school campers on Saturday.

"I remember coming to Tommy Reamon's camp when I was in High School," Tomlin said. "It was five dollars and we received a t-shirt."

There were not many local sports heroes for Reamon to follow when he played for Carver High School in Newport News but one player did make an impression on Reamon was Leroy Keyes.

"I grew up dreaming to be like a guy named Leroy Keyes," said Reamon who followed Keyes to the All-Black Carver High School in Newport News. "He was runner up for the Heisman trophy in 1968 behind O.J Simpson and was an idol that I could not touch but who influenced me to dream to be like him."

Drafted by the Steelers out of the University of Missouri, Reamon played professionally for the World Football League for the Florida Blazers where he gained 1576 yards and scored 11 touchdowns on his way to Co-League MVP. He moved on to play for the Kansas City Chiefs. After professional football and a stint as an actor, Reamon became a High School football coach where he has remained the last 24 years. He's also has a book titled Rough Diamonds. Reamon says he jokes with the players who came full circle from camp participant to camp teacher.

"I'm probably the last link to the Newport News athletics from that era," he said. "As the years went by, the philosophy has stayed the same--expose the players to positive adult role models who can help them not only learn the game of football but more importantly life skills."

Reamon has coached and help develop Qwamie Lassiter (NFL player), Aaron Brooks (12-year NFL quarterback), Michael Vick (#1 draft choice of Atlanta), Marcus Vick, and his son Tommy Reamon Jr. who is a college quarterback for Old Dominion University. Still, the NFL camp remains a legacy Reamon is proud to have pioneered."It's a great thrill and the greatest feeling I can have," Reamon said. "To see this (camp) flourish like it has makes me so happy. You watch people grow as young men and to know I might have had a little bit of touch with their influence on life...it tells me I'm doing something right."