Former Herd player returns to campus for charity football event

The Marshall Child Development Academy hosted its annual Troy Brown Fantasy Football Camp at the Joan C. Edwards Stadium on Saturday.

The Troy Brown Fantasy Football Camp is a two-day event in which individuals pay to participate in a football game to raise money for the Marshall University Child Development Academy.  They get the opportunity to play with former Marshall players and meet the professional athletes.

Troy Brown, a former wide receiver for the New England Patriots, and Mike Bartrum, former long snapper for the Philadelphia Eagles, coached their players in the game.

According to a program from the Child Development Academy the mission is threefold: To offer education and excellent childcare to the students families, faculty and staff of Marshall University as well as the wider community, to provide its Marshall student staff with a quality learning experience and to serve as a model of child care in the region.

"For Troy and Mike to come out and spend their time to raise money for charity, Marshall University and the Child Development Academy is fantastic," said Marc Miller, Huntington resident and participant in the football game.  "It's competitive and gives everybody a chance to play one more game.  I remember coming out the first year and going through the passing drills.  Troy gave me tips that made me twice as good so you never know what these great pros are going to teach you."

The event was sponsored by local individuals and companies such as Jason Moses, Dutch Miller Chevrolet, Chad Pennington, WOWK Channel 13, Cabell Huntington Hospital, Texas Road House and several others.

"When Troy was in town, he was devoted to his kids," said Susan Miller, director of the Child Development Academy.  "He was the parent who ran to them instead of them running to him.  He was just the most devoted father and that's what made me want to learn a little more about him."

The camp raises money for the academy to help teachers and staff while the main goal is to encourage men to go into the early education field. 

Bartrum said this is a yearly event and said he thinks it is a great cause and anytime he can be associated with someone like Troy Brown it's always awesome.  Bartrum said he also enjoys the competition among the teams.

"We need good positive role models for the kids, not just necessarily myself or Troy, but most of these guys are dads," Bartrum said.  "I think its great for the community to let everyone know that you need to give back and that's what God wants us to do, he wants us to pay it forward."

Brown said the event was a great success and was happy there were no injuries. 

"Overall, the game was fantastic and the participants had a lot of fun; that's all that matters," Brown said. "It was a great day for some fantasy football.  Its nice watching everybody have a little fun each year we play.  The guys have been working toward this day since last year.  My boys were here just having a great time and this is just such a great event."

   John Yeingst can be contacted at yeingst@marshall.edu.