Getting the first SW78 Memorial Football Camp off the ground was hard enough.
However, with help from camp director Kim Dill and many others in Tupelo High School’s administration and football coaching staff, Amanda Lavender and Josh Westmoreland were able to do just that and much more on Saturday, June 24, on the blue turf.
Lavender and Westmoreland launched the camp as a way to honor their son, Sam Westmoreland, a former Tupelo and Mississippi State football player who lost a battle with mental health in October.
The depth of diversity in the campers, his father said, was a reflection of Sam’s friends, relationships and teammates.
“What we got on that field was a snapshot of Sam Alton,” Westmoreland said. “We had rich kids, we had poor kids, we had Asian kids, we had Mexican kids, we had white kids, we had Black kids … and we had girls and we had fierce girls and we had shy boys and everyone was welcomed.”
Tupelo coach Ty Hardin led the 60 participants, aged 6-12, through drills for the first hour. Volunteers from Tupelo and Mississippi State helped to run the remaining two hours.
Hardin, along with offensive line coach Trey Ward, along with THS director of communications Gregg Ellis, were all integral in the planning process.
“I can’t say enough about them,” Westmoreland said. “Everything was ‘What do you need? What do you need?’ or just ‘We got this. We got this, we got this’.”
Among the volunteers was Jett Johnson, a linebacker at Mississippi State who graduated from Tupelo.
Each of the volunteers knew Sam in some way, whether as a teammate on the practice squad or as a person to be there when they needed someone to talk to. They had the chance to give back through the camp and relished the opportunity.
“Their presence was wonderful. They said they wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Lavender said. “I think they had more fun than the kids.”
Two kids were awarded at the end of the camp for displaying the best characteristics of Sam throughout the day. The awards included a football signed by Zac Arnett and an Ole Miss football.
“It was such a positive reaction,” Lavender said. “With everybody, all of us, we pulled it together. The first camp was amazing and it was like everybody was personally involved … for Sam Alton.”
Lavender and Westmoreland would like to plan more events to honor Sam in the future, including a camp next year and a silent auction sometime in the fall. The biggest way they want to do so, however, is to advocate for better mental health and live the way that he lived.
“We also just want to just champion mental health,” Westmoreland said. “And that just may be by just living our best life for him.”
Dill was happy to see so many kids not only turnout for the first camp, but to enjoy it as much as they did. The group included 15 from the Boys and Girls Club of North Mississippi who went free of admission.
“It was fabulous, we were totally impressed,” Dill said. “For the first year to have 60 kids, have the Boys and Girls Club kids. It was an amazing day.”
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