GRENADA — Tyre Phillips couldn’t run his inaugural football camp on Saturday at Grenada High School alone.
No, he had plenty of help.
Phillips’ father manned the grill. His sister handled registration. His little brother and cousin helped out with coaching. His aunt picked the music
“It’s a family affair,” Phillips said.
Add in the host of former Mississippi State teammates who came to help out, and it was easy to see why Phillips’ first endeavor at a camp was a success.
“This is my first camp, so it’s amazing just to have some of the guys who are here,” Phillips said. “Obviously, we were all teammates at Mississippi State, but they didn’t have to come and help me. I’m so grateful that they came to support me and my city.”
Phillips, who played at MSU from 2017-2019, is entering his third season as an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens. The NFL standouts who joined him Saturday mostly played the same position, and Phillips said that made it easy to get everyone together.
Former Bulldog O-linemen Elgton Jenkins, Greg Eiland, Martinas Rankin and Deion “Shaq” Calhoun all helped out with the camp. So did former MSU defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons and Grenada native Genard Avery, a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
New Orleans Saints safety J.T. Gray, a two-time All-Pro on special teams after a strong career in Starkville, rounded out the group.
“It’s like family,” Gray said. “It feels like the good old days we had at Mississippi State.”
The same corps of former Bulldogs has made a tour of sorts around the state. Phillips, Jenkins and more have made appearances at Simmons’ camps in Starkville; Phillips and Simmons were among those who went to a camp hosted by Gray and Jenkins on Friday in their native Clarksdale.
To Phillips, it’s a matter of simple courtesy.
“You go to somebody else’s camp, and they come to yours,” he said.
But he wanted to make sure the time was right before hosting his own event. Phillips scouted Simmons’ camps in 2020 and 2021 at the Starkville Sportsplex and checked out Gray’s and Jenkins’ event in Clarksdale, incorporating the aspects he liked most.
Then it was time.
“I’m the type that I like to see something before I do it, because if I do it, I want to be the best at it,” Phillips said.
His camp involved drills in the morning at the Grenada High School football stadium followed by 7-on-7 competition in the afternoon.
Jenkins pointed to a “great turnout” as a sign of success for his former MSU teammate’s camp.
“The kids, they’ve got a lot of energy,” the current Green Bay Packers guard said. “They want to be here. They’re enthused.
“It means a lot having NFL guys, guys making an impact in the league, come out to my hometown, (Phillips’) hometown, (Simmons’) hometown to give back to the kids so they can see that the people that come from where they come from, you can do the same thing,” Jenkins added. “If it’s not football, it’s still just excel in whatever you do.”
Jenkins said camps were scarce in the area when he was growing up, but Phillips’ camp is just the latest in a growing list of local events.
And to professionals like Jenkins, Gray and Phillips, hosting a camp comes pretty naturally.
“We’re football players,” Jenkins said. “This is what we do. It’s not hard. You just want to go out there and have fun, make sure they have fun and also make sure they’re learning things at the same time.”
That’s easy for Phillips in a community he knows well. It’s hard for the Ravens lineman to see campers whose families he’s not familiar with.
“In these small towns like Grenada, you know everybody,” Phillips said. “‘Hey, I went to school with your sister. I know your mama. Our parents went to school together.’ It’s genuine. Genuine love.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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