Former Volunteer footballer working with kids in Clinton
After a solid college football career, a former Tennessee Volunteer is now teaching the game he loves to young football players.
Former UT and Red Bank High School running back Gerald Riggs Jr. is now sharing football with youth and high school players throughout the Southeast, including Tennessee and Georgia.
“I’ve been all over,” said Riggs, whose father Gerald Sr., played in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins. “So, I started working with youth when I left football, and it grew.
“I’ve worked with kids in the Atlanta area and in Northeast Tennessee,” he said. “And I came here to work with the Clinton Dragons youth football program and I want to teach the skills and the mentality of the game. I’ve worked with kids in Cleveland, Knoxville and Jefferson County.”
The younger Riggs, who has worked with the Clinton Youth Football program throughout this year, hosted a youth camp in Clinton on Saturday, March 25.
He had 50 players signed up as of the middle of last week and was eagerly anticipating the event during a phone interview last week.
Riggs Jr., who currently resides in the Chattanooga area, has recently taken a coaching job at Cleveland High School. But he’s found the Clinton community supportive of his efforts as he aims to assist in the development of youth football in town.
“They’ve been great,” he said. “I’ve worked with the Clinton High School athletic director to use their facilities. The community has been really supportive.”
In recent years, the game of football has come under criticism because of its violent nature. That’s not lost on the former Vol, but he said he feels that if the game is taught correctly, it may not be as dangerous.
“It’s a violent game and it’s a collision sport,” he said. “But I think they’ve done everything they can to make the game as safe as it can be.
“When I fell in love with the game watching my father play, he asked me if I understood that I could get hurt.”
Riggs Jr. did understand. He also knew, however, that injury is a risk in any sport, whether it is baseball, football, soccer or basketball.
“You see people tearing ACLs in basketball and getting concussions in soccer,” he said.
Football is a team sport, and like all team sports, the game teaches valuable life lessons, he said.
“Football teaches you about everyday life,” Riggs said. “It teaches you teamwork, and you know that you’re not going to like everybody you work with.
“It teaches you how to respect each other and it teaches people to put their differences aside and work together toward a common goal.”