Aaron Donald hosts the 4th Annual Free Youth Football Camp

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Pitt football legend Aaron Donald continues to make his presence known throughout the Pittsburgh community in a variety of ways.

He hosted his fourth annual “Living in the Pocket Skills Camp” at Highmark Stadium on Saturday, which is a free football camp for boys and girls ages six to 18. The camp sold out to its allotted capacity in two hours, with attendees coming from eight different states and the District of Columbia.

Donald loves hosting his annual camp. He sees this as an opportunity to help motivate kids not only on the football field, but in life in general and just for those kids to see who he is as a person off the field.

“It’s just a fun day,” Donald told his camp. “It’s great to be with these kids and not only teach them football, but interact with them. They see me as a person, joking and playing with them outside and just being myself.”

Donald worked with the 2Tenths Speed ​​and Agility Training staff to coach attendees through various exercises. This includes drills focused on footwork, hand placement, route running, throwing, position work, conditioning and more.

Aaron Donald’s family members joined him to help out at the camp, including Panthers redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Elliott Donald, who is Aaron’s nephew.

Donald grew up in the City of Pittsburgh and lived in the Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood in the northeast corridor. He sees this camp as an opportunity, not only to give back to the community, but also to

“It’s a blessing,” said Donald. “As a kid who grew up in the inner city, to be where I am today and to have the opportunity to come back and motivate a lot. A lot of kids are looking at me. To be a role model and for them to see me as a person. It was huge.”

The work that goes into hosting this camp is thanks in large part to Aaron Donald’s foundation, named the AD99 Solutions Foundation. The foundation’s mission, “is to change the trajectory of Pittsburgh’s most vulnerable youth by providing needed resources in a free, safe environment where they can be empowered to excel academically, socially, and athletically .”

Donald worked with the kids all day to improve their skills through drills, but also made sure to talk to them and make them feel welcome at camp.

“Football is a sport, but everything is bigger than football obviously,” Donald said. “It comes down to work ethic, discipline, teamwork. Things you need in life, period. It’s great to be with these kids and let them know, obviously, we’re talking about football, we’re happy to work with football, but it’s bigger than sports. To be able to do that and talk about mental health, the things I’ve done with my foundation, it’s huge.”

Donald attended Pitt from 2010-13 and starred in his final season, earning unanimous All-American honors and ACC Defensive Player of the Year. He also earned the Bronco Nagurski Trophy and the Chuck Bednarik Award for best defensive player, the Lombardi Award for player who embodies the spirit of Hall of Fame head coach Vince Lombardi, and the Outland Trophy for best interior lineman .

Pitt has improved as a team since Donald’s departure, with the team winning the ACC Championship in 2021 and finishing back-to-back seasons ranked in the Top 25 for the first time since the early 1980s. Donald was proud of the program’s growth since his departure, and even gave a seven-dollar donation to the program to open the Aaron Donald Performance Center at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the Southside where Pitt practices.

“I’m a proud Pitt boy,” Donald said. “I work out there in the offseason. I play with Pitt a lot. So to see all the success that Pitt is having and guys get in the first round and get drafted, that’s huge and I’m just proud.”

The St. Louis Rams drafted Donald in the First Round of the 2014 NFL Draft with the No. 13 picks and he has served as their greatest player in franchise history, especially since moving to Los Angeles in 2015. He has made nine consecutive Pro Bowls, earning seven consecutive First-Team All-Pro honors since 2015 -21, has won three NFL Defensive Player of the Year Awards and was a member of the NFL 2010s All-Decade Team.

Donald is considered by many to be one of the greatest defensive lineman in football history. This is even more impressive considering he is “small” for his position, standing at just 6-foot-1.

The disadvantages that Donald faced throughout his life did not stop him from achieving his goals. He continues to host his camp and meet with kids around the area to remind them that they too can achieve their goals in life, regardless of whether it’s at a football game or not.

“Just get on with the job,” Donald said. “Just keep playing. It’s just a game at the end of the day. Obviously you will have negative things said about you, positive things, but just stay the course. Get on with the job. Continue to post a body of work. Stay focused. Hard work always pays off and if you continue to play the game you love and play at a high level, everything will take care of itself from there.”

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