File PhotoFormer NFL linebacker, and Lowndes standout, Randall Godfrey gives instructions at his all-star football camp at Martin Stadium on June 13, 2015.

VALDOSTA — Randall Godfrey never had the opportunity to speak directly with one of his idols when he was growing up, but over the years, he’s received plenty of first-hand accounts of the drastic effects of such an experience.

It’s why Godfrey, a USA Today High School All-American linebacker at Lowndes High in 1991, has made it his duty since 1997 to provide kids with the formula it takes to be successful at his Randall Godfrey All-Star Football Camp.

“I wasn’t fortunate enough to have NFL players coming back and speaking to me, encouraging me and motivating me each and every summer, but I feel it’s important,” Godfrey said Tuesday. “The football part is minimum to us. We don’t really stress the football… We stress the importance of setting goals, staying drug free, and just doing the right thing.”

The Randall Godfrey All-Star Football Camp is a non-contact camp for boys between the ages of 6-15 where the campers will get the opportunity to meet and learn from Godfrey, a Second-Team All-Pro selection as a member of Dallas Cowboys in 2000, in addition to other collegiate and NFL players past and present.

The 17th iteration of the camp is scheduled to be held June 3 at Martin Stadium at Lowndes High School from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Kids should wear tennis shoes or cleats.

Food and prizes donated by the NFL and local business, including the former NFL All-Star’s locally-owned Godfrey’s Funeral Home, which is also paying the price of admission for 150 kids.

Comparable youth football camps can often range upwards of $100, but Godfrey’s camp costs just $20. Even then, Godfrey doesn’t plan on turning kids away.

“I kind of say, to each his own,” Godfrey said. “A lot of those camps are ran by other companies and they just use the player’s name. But I try to keep my price as low as possible…

“We strive to keep everything as low as possible. We reach out to a few local sponsors, but I kind of dig in my pockets quite a bit, because I’m just truly blessed to be able to save my money well. I own a business here. We just want to see the kids have a good time.”

When Godfrey, a member of the All-SEC team from 1993-94 during his career at the University of Georgia, held his first camp, he did so with the help of a pair of local standouts Dexter Daniels and Brice Hunter.

Daniels was named the USA Today National Defensive Player of the Year in 1991 while playing linebacker for Valdosta High School, and he went on to play for the Florida Gators before a short stint in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens. Hunter was Daniels’ teammate at Valdosta before joining Godfrey at UGA, where the receiver set school records with 182 receptions for 2,373 yards and 19 touchdowns in his four-year career. Hunter briefly played in the NFL before his untimely passing.

Godfrey has since carried on with the camp’s tradition, bringing on new additions to the camp along the way.

“We’ve always wanted to find a way to give back to our kids in this community because we were just blessed enough to play in the NFL, and of course play college ball,” Godfrey said. “We just took time out of our schedule every year to make sure we come back and let our kids get a chance to mingle with some of our NFL buddies and some of our college friends and enjoy the moment.”

Former Lowndes standouts Greg Reid and Telvin Smith — who brought along some former Florida State and current Jacksonville Jaguar teammates to Martin Stadium for his own ‘Gamechanger’ camp last summer — are among the local athletes Godfrey’s invited to his camp.

Godfrey said he also plans to reach out to former local standouts Jay Rome and Malcolm Mitchell, players he’d met when they were but kids coming through his camp years prior.

The main purpose is to give the players a platform at the camp to speak to the kids about all the trials they’ve been through and the mistakes they’ve made along the way, with the goal of preventing today’s youth from making some of the same mistakes.

Even if its not in football, Godfrey has seen the lessons conveyed at his camp pay dividends in children’s futures, and he’s watched them come back and pay that good deed forward.

“Every year, there’s always a guy that comes back in my camp and says, ‘Man, I was at your camp in ‘98 or ‘99, and man you said some things. I’m a lieutenant now and I’m doing this, I’ve got my own company, and I want to help,’” Godfrey said. “That just brings tears to my eyes. When we can sit here and just say a couple of words…”

A vision board is one of the secrets Godfrey has shared with his campers in the past to help them clarify, concentrate and maintain focus on a goal in their future. Godfrey has done it whole life, and he’s encouraged kids to do the same.

There’ll be bumps in the road, Godfrey admitted. It took Godfrey retiring from the NFL after 12 years to finally go back to school and finish his degree, something he said was always on his list.

Godfrey also has a vision of a day when the area’s stars coming together to encourage the local youth becomes an annual occurrence.

“I don’t have to put my name on the camp,” Godfrey said. “I just wish we could all get together and do something big every year, because I’ve got the formula now. I know how to make it work.

“I think it’s important we all come back… There’s a kid out there now that doesn’t have any parents in the house, but he’s a great athlete. He’s struggling in school and all he needs is a pat on the back and some encouragement.”

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.