‘This place has done so much for me’: Ahead of first NFL season, McConkey holds youth camp at North Murray

Published 7:30 pm Thursday, July 11, 2024

CHATSWORTH — During his four years at North Murray High School, Ladd McConkey did plenty of teaching on the football field.

Before his 2020 graduation, McConkey schooled would-be tacklers on what happens when they take a bad pursuit angle and educated any opposing coaches that didn’t gear the gameplan around stopping No. 15.

On the same field Thursday, the upcoming NFL rookie did a little traditional football teaching.

The one-time North Murray Mountaineer and Georgia Bulldog took a break from his preparations for his first season with the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers to hold a free youth football camp on his old high school field.

“I have so much support here,” McConkey said, standing in the Mountaineer end zone during a break in camp action on Thursday. “Seeing all the parents and the kids here, it really makes my day. This place has done so much for me, so it feels good to do a little bit for them.”

Campers aged 6 to 16 turned out in droves in Chatsworth to get some hands-on instruction from McConkey and some current North Murray players and coaches. Most wore the camp t-shirt, a white shirt with McConkey’s college number, 84, emblazoned in red on the back.

Others brought their own McConkey Georgia or North Murray gear.

The camp was officially announced last week, and spots for the free camp were quickly claimed.

“Everybody was on board and super excited,” McConkey said. “I think it filled up in a couple of hours. I was super pumped to get back to the home town.”

Campers took turns rotating to different coaching stations, each teaching different skills. McConkey led a station that featured a two-hand touch pickup game, with the L.A. Chargers wide receiver serving as the quarterback for both teams.

McConkey spent the afternoon flipping underhanded passes to younger campers and hurling deep balls to older receivers. McConkey, a receiver at Georgia and in the NFL, was the Mountaineer quarterback during his senior year in 2019.

As each group rotated to McConkey’s station, they posed for a picture with the former North Murray star before hitting the field with him.

“I was in their shoes one day, and I wanted to play in the NFL,” McConkey said. “I just want to show them that, with hard work and perseverance, don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do.”

McConkey’s own experience reflects that sentiment.

After a standout senior season at North Murray, the unheralded, three-star recruit was ranked as the 187th best wide receiver prospect in the Class of 2020 by recruiting website 247sports. Georgia gave him his first offer by a Power Five school after an in-home visit by coach Kirby Smart, and McConkey signed with the Bulldogs.

After redshirting his first year on campus, McConkey was a starting wide receiver on back-to-back national title teams at Georgia in 2021 and 2022.

Despite a redshirt junior year in 2023 in which he missed a handful of games due to injury, McConkey became the ninth wide receiver taken in the 2024 NFL Draft in April, when the Chargers took him 34th overall — the second pick in the second round.

McConkey signed his four-year rookie contract with L.A. last month, a deal that will pay him nearly $10 million.

McConkey and the Chargers open the 2024 regular season with a game Sunday, Sept. 8, at home against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Chargers play in McConkey’s home state when they make the trip to Atlanta for a regular season game on Dec. 1 at 1 p.m.