Derion Kendrick teaching youngsters through his own personal life lessons at youth camp

Derion Kendrick was candid on Friday about the lessons he’s learned during his football career. Kendrick was hosting his first Youth Leadership football camp at South Pointe High School.

The former Stallion spent his four-year collegiate career between Clemson University and the University of Georgia. He won two national championships and earned all-conference honors three times before he was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

Kendrick admitted, though, that his draft position was a letdown and was aware of his share of the responsibility.

Disciplinary issues forced Kendrick to miss multiple games during the 2020 season at Clemson. He was dismissed from the team entirely in 2021, citing miscommunications on his end with the coaching staff following his son going to the hospital.

Kendrick, a cornerback for the Rams, knows those incidents caused his draft position to slide in the minds of some general managers and coaching staffs and wants the local youth to learn from his mistakes.

“I had a couple setbacks in my college career,” the 23-year-old said. “Had a couple legal situations go on that set me back from achieving my draft goals. I wanted to be a first-rounder, but I ended up preventing myself from doing that by decisions I was making off the field. That was the main thing I was trying to get to them was watch who you’re around, watch where you’re going. I always believed in that gut feeling that something is wrong or may go wrong, so just be smart.”

Friday was the first day of Kendrick’s two-day camp, with the four-hour session focused on giving campers lessons to succeed on and off the field.

The camp was hosted in conjunction with Lĭv To Grō, a Rock Hill-based nonprofit aimed at helping young men find their purpose and understand their why.

Lĭv To Grō CEO Welvin Simpkins, who was an assistant coach at South Pointe for all of Kendrick’s time there, said that having players like Kendrick come back and share their personal stories is priceless.

“I think experience is the best teacher,” Simpkins said. “(Kendrick) experienced some things that most people needed to hear because we can’t make all of the mistakes ourselves. If somebody made a mistake, learn from their mistake and be better for it. ... I thought it was great that (Kendrick) was in a position where he was willing to be vulnerable, also allowing himself to understand the importance of being able to maximize your mental health being always at the forefront.”

Kendrick also had his high school jersey retired at the camp. In his final two years at South Pointe, Kendrick threw for over 5,000 yards with 59 touchdowns and ran for 1600 yard with 25 touchdowns as the Stallions won state titles in both seasons.

He is one of six former Stallions athletes to play in the NFL, with four of the other five on active rosters.

Kendrick said he feels blessed to have made it this far. Kendrick’s giving back to the community he was born and raised in means a lot to not just him but others in the community.

“I can’t preach enough how important it is that he came back to his school,” South Pointe athletic director Carlos Richardson said. “He doesn’t have to give back monetarily, but he gave back in the flesh.”

“(Kendrick) is always around, the kids can touch him. And that’s all we want. We want our guys to come around. We want our kids to be able to see what they can be, and he’s done a great job of showing our kids that all the time.”

The on-field part of the camp was on Saturday.

Simpkins said it was important for the instructional part of the camp to occur on the first day to stress that the campers are student-athletes and not the other way around.

Kendrick received a lot of love and positive feedback for the camp and was excited to watch his campers compete. He just hope the gems he gave the kids are ones they carry with them throughout their athletic careers and life.

“My main thing was just staying relentless,” Kendrick said. “You might have trials at any point in your life, so just stay relentless, keep your head up, keep working. Don’t get too down on yourself when something happens because there’s always sunshine even when the rain comes.”

Kendrick is entering his third year with the Rams, racking up 92 tackles and an interception across 32 games including 18 starts.