Three mothers remember their sons with annual JR Adams/Myles
Brinson Fundamentals of Football Camp
Gilroy – For Melody Behbahani, the images hit a little too close to home.
It had only been it had only been four months since her son, 17-year-old JR Adams, was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Mexico during spring break. So when she attended the Myles Brinson/JR Adams Fundamentals of Football Camp last July – the camp held partly in honor of her son – it was difficult for Behbahani to be around the game that had been such a big part of JR’s life.
“You look at the kids running out there and you see your son,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Where ‘s JR?'”
In the three summers prior to 2005, JR’s father KC Adams and Myles’ father Marlowe Brinson had hosted the week-long football camp in memory of Myles, who died of leukemia in 2002 at the age of eight. This year’s camp, which begins Monday at Anchorpoint Christian, will be the second year that the camp has been held also in memory of JR Adams, who was a standout player at Valley Christian and was headed to Idaho State on a football scholarship after graduation.
But despite the pain that Behbahani, JR’s stepmother Liz Adams and Myles’ mother Sherida Brinson continue to feel over their loss, they know their sons would be proud of the camp.
“I don’t think time has lessened the hurt at all,” Liz Adams said. “But it was something (JR) would have really enjoyed and wanted.”
The purpose of the five-day football camp, led by former college players KC Adams and Marlowe Brinson, is not just to teach the game but also to pass along life skills to campers.
“I believe that the camp has touched many peoples’ lives,” Sherida Brinson said. “These kids leave there with a sense of certainty in their lives. You know some are unsure (when they get here). But when they leave, there’s self-confidence.”
For five days, campers will learn the game of football – the sport that JR Adams once told his mother was his life.
“He said, ‘One day, I’ll play pro ball,'” Behbahani said. “I said, ‘JR, I know you will.’ And he would have.”
Young Myles Brinson didn’t have the chance to become as established on the football field as JR did. But Sherida Brinson saw what the joy of sports did for her son in the last year of his life. Myles played in a handful of soccer games before he was diagnosed with leukemia. And it was right before his health began to deteriorate that Myles scored his first goal.
“The game he wasn’t feeling good at, he scored his first goal,” Sherida Brinson remembered. “He was screaming…That’s when I could tell he understood the passion of playing sports.”
Despite being so young, Myles Brinson had already developed a value for things in his life other than sports.
“Myles, even though he loved the game of football, there were so many other things in his life,” Sherida Brinson said. “Going to school and church and doing things with his family, that was pretty much what he lived for.”
To inspire kids to succeed in all aspects of their lives, the camp has guest speakers daily. Among those that will speak on various issues at the camp next week are boxer Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero, Foothills Foursquare Church pastor Mark Wilson and former Oakland Raider and three-time Pro Bowler Dana Stubblefield.
“Bittersweet” is the word the mothers often use to describe their feelings about the camp. This year, the first day of camp incidentally falls on what would have been JR’s 19th birthday.
“At first, (KC) didn’t want it (to start on JR’s birthday),” Liz Adams said. “But then he said, ‘No, it’s a good day to start.”
Camp starts at 5pm Monday. Registration begins at 4:30.
