By Tabitha Evans Moore, EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Lynchburg is the hometown of former University of Tennessee Head Coach Johnny Majors and in June one of his former players, Chris Treece, will bring the next generation of Raider players a special opportunity as the Legends of Tennessee Football Camp will visit Lynchburg for the first time. The Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce played a crucial role in bringing the event to Moore County.
Treece visited Lynchburg on Saturday to do a walk through of the MCHS facilities. He also enjoyed a tour of The Jack Daniel Distillery, lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s Restaurant, and visited Coach Johnny Major’s gravesite.
Treece told The Times that the gravesite visit felt emotional to him, as he spoke to Coach Majors the week before he died in his Knoxville home on June 3, 2020. A native of Lynchburg, Johnny Major is buried in Lynchburg next to his parents Shirley Majors and Elizabeth Bobo Majors as well as his brother, Bill Majors.
“Coach Majors and I made plans to have lunch the week before he passed,” Treece said. “Holding this camp here means a lot to me. I’m the only person in our organization that played for him, so this camp will have a special meaning to me.”
Fundamentals at both a college and pro level
Former University of Tennessee players Jabari Davis and Chris Treece founded the camp in 2018 with the mission of spreading the fundamentals of both life and football to kid’s located across Tennessee. Each one-day camp focuses on life skills training, character development, teamwork, discipline, academic success, accountability, leadership skills, and sportsmanship.
“It’s not a camp where we just babysit,” explained Treece. “Players are gonna learn fundamentals at the college level and even the pro level combined with specific skills and techniques. We’ve had older kids who told us that they felt like they got scholarship offers based in part on the things they learned at our camp.”
Treece says that kids will learn individual skills per position first, and then break out into groups.
“Some younger players have no idea what position they want to play, so we also pair them up with a camp instructor who can help them figure that out,” Treece says. “This includes offensive positions and defensive positions.”
Treece tells The Times that he doesn’t yet know which players will visit Lynchburg in June but camp instructors will include not only past University of Tennessee players – including those with NFL experience – but also current players. For a complete list of past camp instructors, click here.
“We have a core group of guys including myself and Jabari Davis, Eric Westmoreland, and Herman Lathers,” Treece says. “We won’t know which current players we’ll have access to until closer to the event.”
Open to kids ages 6 to 18
The camp is open to elementary school, middle school, and high school players ages 6-18. Each child participating will receive a camp T-shirt as well as autographs and prizes. Lunch will be provided, but kids should bring their own water bottle. Registration for the camp will begin at 9 a.m. on June 1. The cost is $125 per child, and you can register online at this link.
This year’s camp will be the first year that the Legends of Tennessee Camp will be offered in Lynchburg but Treece says he hopes to make it an annual stop. Lynchburg will be only southern, middle Tennessee camp and one of just 14 locations that will offer the camp in 2024 including Morgan County, Mount Juliet, Dickson, Sevierville, Greeneville, Jackson, Crossville, Dyersburg, Paris, Dunlap, Covington, Bristol, and Milan.
The Legends of Tennessee Football Camp will take place on Saturday June 1 at Moore County High School at Doug Price Field. For more information, visit the program’s website by clicking here. You can also reach them at [email protected] or follow them on Facebook. •
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