VALDOSTA – Former Valdosta Wildcat standout Jaheim Bell returned to his old stomping grounds for his second annual youth football camp Saturday afternoon.

Much has changed for the former South Carolina Gamecock as he transferred from Columbia, South Carolina down to Tallahassee, Florida to join the Florida State Seminoles.

More than 200 kids made their way to Bazemore-Hyder Stadium for a full camp experience, complete with fundamentals, drills and competitions for trophies at the camp’s conclusion.

Like his inaugural camp, Bell had several big names assisting him – former Wildcat teammates Tate Rodemaker and Jayce Rogers, Sr. as well as FSU quarterback Jordan Travis. The most notable name, in his second year participating at the camp, was University of Florida quarterback and highly touted NFL draft prospect Anthony Richardson.

“It was over 200 today, closer to 215,” Bell said. “It was a great turnout. I’m proud of those kids. It means so much to me because when I was younger, in their shoes, I didn’t have that growing up so I just wanted to be able to pour that type of talent (into them) – having all those different guys from my school and other schools just answer questions from them, it was a great turnout.

“It means a lot. It just goes to show how much hard work I’ve put in…a lot of the work that I felt went unnoticed. It didn’t. Going from last year when I had the camp last year, I had a little bit under 100 kids. This year, just seeing the turnout and watching it grow, it means so much to me just coming back to the city and giving back just feels great.”

After experiencing some hiccups and delays organizing the camp the first year, Bell and his team found the road to Year 2 much easier to navigate.

“This year was ten times easier,” Bell said. “Just knowing what I did last year, knowing the mistakes that we made, knowing the things we did good on and just exhaling on that, I feel like this year was ten times easier.”

The camp concluded with the campers racing each other for prizes as Bell and the other college athletes looked on.

Bell said the one-on-one battles were his favorite thing about the camp, evidenced by how energized they were watching the kids compete.

“My favorite part about today was just watching the one-on-ones, man – just watching those guys compete,” Bell said. “Even some of the younger guys, they just look so advanced. When I was coming up, it was a lot of great guys coming up when I was a kid but they just looked so much more advanced than when I was coming up.”

Bell, a redshirt junior tight end, fell out of love with South Carolina and embraces what he calls “a fresh start” at FSU.

“It’s basically just a fresh start for me, man,” Bell said of being at FSU. “I kind of needed that. A lot of people know what I went through at South Carolina. We’re not going to too much talk about that, but I just felt like I needed a fresh start and Florida State was the school I needed to be at.”

So what can fans expect of Bell and the Seminoles next season? As far as Bell is concerned, the expectation is to win and win big.

“The expectation I have for the team is just to win, man,” Bell said. “Everybody knows the biggest goal is the national championship and that’s what we’re working towards. I feel like we’ve got the right guys to do it and we’re gonna do it.”

Saturday was also the first time that Rodemaker returned to Bazemore-Hyder Stadium since he graduated in 2020.

The school’s all-time leader in single-season passing touchdowns (43), career passing yardage (6,773) and touchdowns (74), Rodemaker could not hide his smile to be back where his football career took off.

“It feels great, man – seeing all these kids,” Rodemaker said. “I was one of these kids at some point, just coming out here and being excited to be on this field. I haven’t been out here in a while. It feels good just to see it and take in all the memories that we had here. It’s been good so far.”

Rodemaker has played in just 14 games since heading off to college, spending much of his time behind Travis, the ‘Noles starting quarterback.

Despite not getting many chances to show his skills on the field just yet, Rodemaker is still having fun with college life and with one more year for Travis in Tallahassee, Rodemaker feels like his time is coming.

“It’s been good. You have to get used to living on your own. Football is going really good. It gets better and better. I just keep improving. I haven’t done much on the field, but I’m getting there. I feel like my time’s coming soon, but it’s been really fun working with all my teammates every day and coaches are really good at staying on top of everything.

“I feel like my best improvement comes from experience, like real on-field experience. Jordan’s obviously a Heisman Trophy candidate for this year. It’s been fun learning from him. He’s got one more year. I’m excited to see what he does this year, but after that, I feel like I’m ready to go.”

With Bell transferring to FSU, Rodemaker has a very familiar target to throw to in practice and hopefully, once again in games someday soon.

“It’s really cool,” Rodemaker said of reuniting with Bell. “It’s really exciting to see him transfer to FSU. I tried to get him out of high school but he didn’t want to. It’s good to finally get him. I’ve been throwing to him already in spring football a little bit and I can see that black and gold on his jersey and it’s easy to throw it to him. It’s fun.”

Bell added: “Just seeing him every day, it’s kind of funny to me now because I was with him in high school and we were pretty much in the locker room every day. I was always at his house every day. Now being at the same school, it feels like we’re back in high school.

“It wasn’t the right timing. Now it’s the right time for me to be there and we’ve clicked back up so we’re about to get the ship rolling down there.”