Young and old gathered on the campus of Hampton University on Wednesday night

to kick off the first night of the Michael Vick Football Camp being held on the

Tidewater campus as the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback joined with former high

school head coach Tommy Reamon and the Hampton University coaching staff headed

up by Donovan Rose to play host to nearly 500 players from elementary through

high school ages.

Having

put on three camps for up-and-coming players in Georgia while playing for the

Falcons, Vick was clearly enjoying his time back home.

"I've always put on a football camp in Atlanta and always had a great turnout

and a significant amount of kids and I never did anything back home here in

Virginia. I thought that this year that I would do it different and bring

it back home," said the left-hander who further indicated that this is not a

one-time thing, "Next year, I'm going to do it in both Atlanta and Virginia so

it is going to be an annual event to try to provide kids with knowledge and give

them an ample opportunity to excel."

The former Pro-Bowler also indicated that Hampton University will likely be

the camp's home in the future as well as he's enjoyed working with the school

and the football program.

"The partnership has been great. Coach Reamon and I reached out to Dr.

Harvey and Hampton University and they were more than glad to have the camp here

and both parties agreed that we were going to do our best to make sure that the

camp was first class. It's great that the kids are out here working hard

and having fun and that's the most important thing."

Part of the fun for Vick is being around family and people he grew up with

and, in the case of several of the campers, children of his lifelong friends.

"Being back home here is different from Atlanta. I've actually seven or

eight kids whose parents I grew up with. It's good to see how they've

grown up in the past five or six years and can now be out here having fun," said

the Eagle.

Given his well-documented troubles the past few years, Vick is taking on the

challenge of rebuilding his name and his image with the same ferocity that he

approached the game of football and he's using lessons learned on the gridiron

to make sure that he succeeds.

"As I matured in football, I'm maturing in life. The time that I take

to make sure that I'm doing certain things like studying the play book or

practicing my craft are the same steps that I have to take in day to day my life

-- building my family, being with my kids, making sure that I am catering to

them and I'm doing all the right things because I have to think of them before I

think about anything else," said the former Warwick Raider and Virginia Tech

Hokie.

And he's certainly looking forward to getting back to himself in the Fall as

well.

"It's rebuilding all the way around for me. Not only off the field but

also on the field. I'm turning 30 so I have to play a totally different

game. Even though Mike Vick will always be out there, and I hate to speak

in third person, but that's the guy who made this camp happen."