CLEVELAND — It's been a busy week—or several weeks—for Cleveland native and CEO/founder of Klutch Sports Group Rich Paul. His biggest client, LeBron James, chose his next team earlier in the week, announcing he'd be signing with the Philadelphia 76ers. But while James didn't return to Cleveland, Paul did, hosting a youth sports event in his hometown Sunday morning.
Paul held a football and flag football clinic for young athletes from the Cleveland area at Case Western's DiSanto Field. The event was part of Paul's Klutch Athletics brand, a sports apparel company partnered with New Balance, and their new “The Best Comes From Anywhere” campaign that includes "The Best Comes from Cleveland."
"What you're seeing behind me is a group of guys and girls, about 50 kids; we're just putting them through activations around flag football and football, and so it's pretty cool," Paul said. "When I come home, I always want to do something back in the community."
Coaches and observers, including former NFL cornerback and Glenville graduate Mike Edwards and Columbus Aviators head coach and Glenville graduate Ted Ginn Jr., gave the athletes participating in the camp advice and lessons.
"It was a great camp. I learned a lot from the trainers here and got better today," said junior Glenville defensive back Jaylen Edwards.
The camp was hosted not only to provide training and coaching for local athletes, but also to inspire them on and off the field.
"It shows that you could come up from Cleveland," said Glenville junior tight end/defensive end Elijah Harden. "You could be something from Cleveland."
For Paul, showing the next generation of athletes that they can succeed on the field was second only to showing them that there are options for success off the field as well.
"The best can come from Cleveland, so when you think about being the best and what that entails, it doesn't just come from a place of being successful; it comes from a place of understanding your mistakes, understanding that you can fail and get back up," Paul said. "Be an example for these kids; they saw my journey, they've seen me in the neighborhood, some of them see me at games and so on and so forth, so if we can help one kid, then we help all, so that's why I'm here."
After the camp, Paul sat down for a Q&A moderated by DJ Steph Floss and joined by Cleveland native and Super Bowl champion Coby Bryant, who now plays safety for the Chicago Bears.
Paul and Bryant answered questions about best habits to create success, the importance of support systems and making sure to think about their future if playing sports professionally doesn't shake out.
"Giving them some insight on, for me, it would be not just the sport, but the ecosystem of the sport. Identifying roles within that ecosystem that they can possibly be if they don't become what they plan to become," Paul said.
Paul spoke to the kids about the jobs each professional team has, from front office to corporate roles, opening up a world in sports that doesn't necessarily revolve around playing.
For Bryant, sharing his perspective as an active player who did make it in that role meant a lot to him on his visit back home.
"It means a lot, honestly. I'm always going to give back. This is where I grew up at, a ton of guys before me gave back to me and I've always been taught to just leave it better than you found it, honestly, and just to pour it into these guys and just hopefully they took it all in and just embracing it, put it into their lives," Bryant said.
The kids went home with those life lessons—and of course, some new Klutch Athletics gear like shirts, shorts and shoes.
And for Paul, making the camp happen and returning home, even without James, was a special opportunity that he knew he had to bring to life.
"It was a busy week, and unfortunately, the King couldn't come to Cleveland. But with that being said, we always have Northeast Ohio and the city of Cleveland; we always have the city of Akron in our love, so I was going to be here regardless," Paul said. "We started the [Klutch Athletics] brand to give the athlete back his voice by starting in the community where they first learned to live and play, and so this is just one of many things that we plan to do, but this is a good start."