MIAMI (June 3, 2017) – Over 250 youth football players, ages 5-14, took part in Saturday's Orange Bowl Youth Football Alliance (OBYFA) clinic, presented by MetroPCS, at Riccardo Silva Stadium on Saturday.
 
Head Coach Butch Davis, the FIU football staff and a number of FIU football players ran participants through a fundamental skills camp featuring offensive, defensive and agility drills, including proper techniques to promote on-field football safety. The clinic also stressed the importance of character development and good sportsmanship.
 
"A lot of credit goes to the Orange Bowl Committee for being able to underwrite and orchestrate this event," Coach Davis said. "This is awesome for the community. Not only did all of these kids get a chance to come out here and intermingle with our coaches and our players, but they were able to come out here and have fun while learning the fundamentals of football. You never know how a thing like this might make a difference in a kid's life. And if you can help the kids in Miami-Dade County, there is no better way to try and do it than this."
 
"Growing up in pop warner football, I know how important it is to get kids enthusiastic about football," linebacker Anthony Wint said. "Today was great. I'm blessed to be in a position to be able to influence kids and teach them the game's fundamentals."
 
"Today was a lot of fun," center Neal Mars said. "It was great to help the kids learn more about the game. It also gave them a chance to see us as normal people. A lot of times kids look up to college football players as bigger-than-life but we are just kids ourselves, growing up and playing football."     
 
Entering its 19th season, the Orange Bowl Youth Football Alliance, presented by MetroPCS, has more than 15,000 youth participants, playing in eight leagues across South Florida, from north of Lake Okeechobee to Key West.
 
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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in eight different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and Riccardo Silva Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute.  FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.