Former Alabama standout and NFL player Roman Harper will be making his way to Troy in July to help host the Brad McCoy Youth Football Camp alongside Charles Henderson High School.

Harper along with the Harper’s Hope 4*1 Foundation will be in town to help Charles Henderson football coach McCoy run a free camp on July 18 and 19.

Harper played safety at the University of Alabama before playing in the NFL with both the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers.

“He is a two-time pro bowler and a super bowl champion,” McCoy said. “We are familiar with his family from his days at Prattville. Talking to his brother Brian, we got to talking about the possibility of getting Roman involved with our youth. We started talking about the foundation that Roman started when he got to the NFL.”

Harper began his foundation shortly after arriving in the NFL. It’s a foundation that helps high schools set up youth camps.

“It does a lot with helping youth with literacy,” McCoy said. “He does it along the lines of football camps. We reached out to him and he agreed to help me with the Brad McCoy Youth Football Camp.”

The camp will be open for players in kindergarten through the eighth grade. It will be a free camp, although the football program will take donations through the camp.

This is not the first time McCoy has hosted a camp; the Trojans hosted a youth camp last summer. McCoy believes giving back to the community is a benefit of being a head coach.

“We want to reach as many youths as we can,” McCoy said. “Every time you look in the news or on ESPN, the game of football is often being criticized. We think it’s important to teach our younger people to know how to play the game the right way and what better way than to get NFL guys and college guys in here to help with these camps.”

The camp will also be used to promote the game of football.

“We want to do that in our community and in the surrounding communities,” McCoy said. “We think it’s important.”

The camp will be non-contact and it will feature a lot of fundamentals in order to teach the participants the way to play the game.

“It will focus on the fundamentals of the game from every angle stance, start, footwork, catching the football, ball security and keeping your eyes and head up,” McCoy said. “Every position we are going to try and teach kids the best way possible. Fundamentals are going to be fundamentals and safety.”

The varsity Trojans from Charles Henderson High School will also be in attendance to help facilitate the camp.

“We will be doing workouts in the morning from 8:30 until 11:00,” McCoy said. “The camps start at 8:30 and conclude at noon. More than likely on those two days I am going to have my guys go out and participate in the camp in the way of instructing and coaching. We want our players to give back and serve and what better way than to help with the young kids in our community.”