The teen receiver lined up across from the teen defensive back at the 20. And there was a man straddling the yard line, someone who knew a little something about defensive backs trying to defend against receivers, ready to blow his whistle and set this one-on-one drill in motion. <\/p>\n
A bunch of other young receivers and defensive backs watched intently nearby as this scene was replayed again and again with that 25-year-old man lending his expertise on this mid-80s summer morning at Valley Stream Memorial Junior High. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m talking to the DBs,\u201d Andre Cisco said at one point. \u201cThe most important thing to start the rep is that your eyes are in the right place. After that, your feet follow and then hands.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cisco used to be one of these Valley Stream kids with big football dreams. His came to life after he moved along from the Valley Stream Green Hornets in Pop Warner to St. Anthony\u2019s to IMG Academy to Syracuse to the NFL. <\/p>\n
After spending his first four seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars, the 2021 third-round pick signed as a free agent in March to play safety for his childhood dream team, the Jets, on a one-year deal worth up to $10 million with incentives. <\/p>\n
Now he was giving back to his childhood community through the second annual Andre Cisco Youth Football Camp, run in conjunction with Valley Stream Central High and the Green Hornets. <\/p>\n
There were 170 kids ages 6-17 signed up for Saturday\u2019s edition, learning from Cisco and his team of coaches. <\/p>\n
The participation fee? Free. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a ton, man,\u201d Cisco told Newsday about giving back in Valley Stream. \u201cAnd to have people come out and show how they did, it means even more. People really respond when my hand goes out, and that\u2019s a good sign as well.\u201d <\/p>\n
Anthony Lampasona, a Valley Stream Central assistant who was one of Cisco\u2019s coaches when he was a running back\/safety with the Green Hornets, said, \u201cYou can tell he loves the kids and the kids love him.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cisco\u2019s kids were dripping with perspiration and feeling his inspiration. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like he\u2019s a big inspiration to me because he also came from Valley Stream here,\u201d said Daniel Sanchez, a rising junior slot receiver\/safety at Valley Stream Central. \u201cHopefully, I can make it out, too, just like him. I look up to him a lot.\u201d <\/p>\n
Nickoli Friday experienced the camp for the second straight year. The Valley Stream Central rising junior running back missed last season with a broken arm. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to make it to the NFL,\u201d Friday said. \u201cI\u2019m working really hard.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said he learned \u201ca lot of footwork\u201d at the camp, and he took a lot from listening to Cisco speak at the beginning about more than just football. Cisco\u2019s religious side was \u201creally inspiring,\u201d according to Friday. <\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke to them earlier about acting \u2018chosen,\u2019 and what that meant was understanding that we all have a special assignment and God has something special in our lives and we\u2019ve got to act like it at all times,\u201d Cisco said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have people that God is going to send to us to hold us accountable, so we should respond to them with humility. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe football part is more so understanding what hard work is about.\u201d <\/p>\n
His message was also about being resilient and coachable. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great guy for doing this and coming out and giving us words of encouragement and helping out his community,\u201d said Eddy Turcios, a rising junior guard\/center\/nose tackle at Valley Stream North. <\/p>\n
Turcios is a Giants fan, but he\u2019s happy to see that Cisco is with the Jets. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe ended up full loop, back where he grew up,\u201d Turcios said. <\/p>\n
Cisco called it \u201ca dream come true.\u201d <\/p>\n
His new team hasn\u2019t seen a playoff game up close the last 14 seasons. But this 6-foot, 210-pound player thinks the Jets, under new coach Aaron Glenn, can end that drought this coming season. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne hundred percent,\u201d Cisco said. \u201cStarting with AG, Aaron Glenn, and the culture he\u2019s setting, the players we have and just I think the focus level that we have, the mentality is going to carry us.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Jets new quarterback\u00a0 Justin Fields will be needed to carry his fair share. \u201cI think we\u2019ve got a guy who will have his best season,\u201d Cisco said. <\/p>\n
Cisco has 229 tackles and eight interceptions behind him in the NFL and an important role in front of him. \u201cI\u2019m just looking to bring a great deal of leadership and experience,\u201d Cisco said, \u201cand just kind of a connection to bridge the gap between mistakes and winning and all the things that we have to do to take the next step.\u201d <\/p>\n
He\u2019s on to training camp in less than two weeks. Youth camp was a success.<\/p>\n
\n\tBrian Heyman covers high school, college and pro sports. He joined\u00a0Newsday\u00a0in 2021 and previously worked as a sportswriter for The Journal News in White Plains and The Hudson Dispatch in Union City, New Jersey. His work has appeared in\u00a0The New York Times, MLB.com and Baseball Digest magazine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The teen receiver lined up across from the teen defensive back at the 20. And there was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,226,26083,1917,255,2321,2097,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-202526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-li-athletes","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-jets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkjets","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114842783416047099","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}