This past weekend, Oakland Raiders TE Roland Williams hosted a two-day football camp at McClymonds High School in Oakland. More than 100 aspiring players attended and took advantage of the opportunity to learn the game and life skills from Williams and many of his teammates. DE Grant Irons, RBs Tyrone Wheatley and Keith Burnell, LB Donny Green and many more Raiders were on hand to teach football techiniques and valuable lessons in the classroom.

Although the gregarious and loquacious veteran tight end does not charge money for young people to attend the camp, Williams is fond of saying, "It's free, but it's not free."

Williams attended his first football camp during his junior year of high school. The camp was held at Syracuse University, just an hour away from his hometown of Rochester, New York.

It opened his eyes to the world of football and the world in general. "As a young man, one of the single most life-changing events in my life was attending a football camp," Williams said. "That experience gave me the opportunity to dream."

Williams said he promised himself if he ever got to the NFL, he would start a state-of-the art football camp "to give people a chance to win in life."

In 1999, Williams and his mom formed the Roland Williams Youth Lifeline Foundation and introduced his first Free Football & Life Skills Camp to the Rochester, N.Y. area. "It's an opportunity for young people to learn what they should know," Williams said of the camp. The camp is free and open to all youths entering grades 9 through 12.

Raiders RB Keith Burnell helped out at Roland Williams' football camp.

Cathy Vanderhoef, an assistant with the foundation, said the camp is not just about football.

"The football portion hooks the kids and makes them want to come," said Vanderhoef. About 20 players from around the NFL participate in the camp and assist in teaching the football portion of the camp.

For the life skills, Williams brings in local professionals, including doctors, lawyers and teachers, to instill his four main components into the 200 camp students. Those components are: financial literacy, computer and Internet competency, health and nutrition, and goal achievement strategy. He said in addition to those components, the camp also stresses social etiquette, diversity training, time management and team building.

"The majority of the camp is actually in the classrooms," said Vanderhoef. "He wants them to be able to take away something they can actually use. People walk away with so much more than what they came with."

Young people today need more options made available to them, Williams said.

"In my opinion sports is a great option to improve yourself as an athlete and as an individual," he said, adding that the camp aims to teach a variety of aspects of life. "There are a lot of things that the youth of this country don't know."

His Rochester camp started small and in five years has expanded into nearly a week of activities surrounding the three-day camp. Williams hosts numerous events including an evening of jazz and poetry, the Roland Williams Free Health Festival, Football 186: for women, a "Bowl with the Pros" event, a video game tournament, and a celebrity golf tournament.

This is also the second year of the foundation's Free Cheerleading & Life Skills Camp. Williams brings in NFL cheerleaders to coach students in grades 6 through 8 and provides them with life skills training as well.

An aspiring quarterback drops back to throw during Roland Williams' football camp.

Vanderhoef said she once asked Williams why he puts so much effort into this camp, including taking money out of his own pocket.

"He said to me, 'Some people invest in their cars and houses when they get money, I invest in the kids,'" Vanderhoef recalled. "People forget you don't have to do huge, elaborate things (for kids)." She said all you need to do is give them love and attention.

The feedback keeps Williams going. "It has been nothing but pure positive feedback," Williams said. And not just from the students. "Every athlete that has come has said it is one of the best they have ever seen."

This is not a short-term project for Williams. "One day I want to touch every city in the country." Vanderhoef can see how important these camps are to Williams. "This is his passion."

Material from Mark S. Lindsay's article which was originally published on NFLHS.com was used for this story.