This June, one of the biggest youth sports camps in South Dakota will return to Brookings for its third year. It’s called the ‘Cash Money Youth Skills Camp.’ No, it doesn’t cost anything, it’s free. The name is purely off of the nickname of the camps founder Noah 'Cash Money' Clair.
While Clair and the other camp organizers have their sights set on year three being bigger and better than the previous two, this year’s camp almost didn’t come to fruition.
“This camp wasn’t supposed to happen this year,” explained Clair. “Come December, I was feeling this deep kind of conviction in my gut to continue to have it, but I was running from it. I didn’t want to do it, it’s very hard and stressful to put on, and I wanted to be done.”
The changing point for Clair was a December run-in with a friend in Sioux Falls when Baylor was in town for a game against Gonzaga at the Sanford Pentagon.
“[Baylor head boys basketball coach Scott] Drew and I are friends, and we went to hang out the night before the game. We were in his hotel room and he was asking about life stuff and the camp came up,” explained Clair. “I’ll never forget his face, I told him “well coach, I think we’re going to be done.” He goes “No, you can’t be done.” I was super caught off guard and he goes “if God leads you to something, it’s your responsibility to do it and step out in faith and trust, and he’ll let you know when it’s time to be done, but it’s not time to be done yet.” So I left the hotel room that night, and that was kind of the kick in the butt I needed.”
From there, Clair and company began brainstorming a plan to get rolling for another camp in June. The vision for it back in 2021 was to provide a free camp for all kids, not just those who come from money or those who are athletic. The idea of including everyone worked and the numbers have been impressive.
Last year, the camp had nearly 600 kids sign up, which was an uptick from the year before. This year, they’re looking at topping the 2022 numbers. When you have large numbers of kids participating, you also must grow as a staff. The hope is to have 70 or more people helping to facilitate the camp. Some of the people headlining this year’s event are NFL defensive back Pierre Desir, NBA small forward CJ Elleby, former SDSU head football coach John Stiegelmeier, Augustana University head football coach Jerry ‘OJ’ Olszewski, and Dakota State head football coach Josh Anderson.
One point of clarification is this isn’t strictly a football camp, it’s an athletic camp where kids will learn a broad range of skills in the forms of drills and games. Some others in attendance will be area athletes from SDSU, Northern State, USD, Dakota State, Dakota Wesleyan, and more.
“We’ve got a lot of great speakers this year,” said Clair. “We want every kid – big or small, large or skinny, girl or boy, whether they like sports or not, we want every single kid, no matter who you are, because you matter. I was a kid growing up and I wasn’t the most athletic kid, I wasn’t the most gifted kid, and I saw kids who were less athletic than I who were getting tossed to the side. I want people to know, especially the kids, that you don’t have to be the best to be a part of this camp, and that you matter, because every kid matters and every kid has a purpose.”
Fellowship of Christian Athletes is also a partner in the event. For Clair, he’s a religious man himself who feels he was chosen to do this.
“The coolest thing for me is it really is God’s hands in it all. If it was just me doing this by myself, it would fail almost immediately. God has blessed me with some incredible people in my corner and he’s also just blessed the camp,” Clair explained. “I keep telling people how little the camp has to do with me, and how much it has to do with everything else.”
This year’s ‘Cash Money Youth Skills Camp’ will take place from Brookings high school on Saturday June 24th. Grades 1-5 are scheduled for the morning with grades 6-12 slated for the afternoon session. For more information, or to sign up, click here.
