COPPELL, Texas – Cowboys defensive tackle Solomon Thomas hosted his sixth annual free youth camp in partnership with his foundation, The Defensive Line, at his high school alma mater Coppell on Saturday, welcoming in hundreds of kids from ages eight to 17 for an afternoon of learning football, and the importance of mental health.
"Coming back to my hometown where everything started, the field that I started on, where I fell in love with football, I just want to give back to these kids," Thomas said. "I think football is such a beautiful game, it teaches you so many things in life. Sacrifice, discipline, routine, hard work when you don't want to work hard, it teaches you lessons about life you wouldn't learn outside of football."
Thomas was originally inspired to start his own youth camp when he saw his old San Francisco 49ers teammate Arik Armstead doing it years ago and has enjoyed putting smiles on kids' faces ever since.
This year's camp is special, as it's the first that Thomas gets to host as a member of his hometown Dallas Cowboys, and he wants to continue to impact the community in a positive way.
"It means the world, it's been a dream come true coming home to play," Thomas said. "Being a Dallas Cowboy now, and it meaning more to the community, I know that Cowboy name, that star holds a lot of weight. And so I want to honor that with how I impact these kids, how I impact this community, and how I play on the field."
While Thomas' camp featured the usual things you'll find at football camps like drills, speed and agility tests and one-on-one competition, it also had a few unique wrinkles: Mediation, and a speech about the importance of mental health. It's a topic that hits close to home for Thomas, and he wants to pass on the importance to the next generation.
"It's important for me because I've been impacted by mental health. I lost my sister to suicide, and it took me through my own mental health journey," Thomas said. "I learned first-hand the importance of mental health and how it can affect you if you don't take care of it and if you believe these misconceptions about mental health."
Thomas purposely tabbed eight as the minimum years of age for his camp because that's the age where Thomas said research states suicide rates begin, so he wanted to make sure that everyone got the same message regardless of where they are in their mental health journeys.
"Mental health starts at a young age, and these kids need to know the definition of it, what means to them, how mental health is important, mental wellness is important…" Thomas said. "They need to learn about it so they can understand more about it, so they know where to go when they're not feeling well, so they know it's okay to not be okay."
Thomas hasn't been the only Cowboys player who has devoted their foundation towards the youth and mental health, as he and quarterback Dak Prescott's Faith, Fight, Finish foundations have partnered together in the past to promote the 988 suicide and crisis line.
Now, they not only get to continue promoting the importance of mental wellbeing together, but they get to share the field together as teammates.
"It's been awesome, it's such an important thing that we have to upload and make sure it's voiced out there because people don't know about 988 enough," Thomas said. "That partnership with mental health has been great, but to get to know him as a teammate has been awesome."
"He's such a good leader, all the guys love him, he connects with everyone on the team. Equipment managers, strength staff, everyone, he's really one of one as a teammate."
Heading into his ninth season, Thomas is the most experience defensive lineman in the Cowboys' locker room by four years and wants to step into a leadership role of his own with this younger unit. That said, he also understands that it takes time, and wants to lead through his actions to start with.
"Being new to a team, you want to come in being gentle," Thomas said. "I've learned that over my time, so I'm not going out there being the loudest one, but I want to show them how I work and how to finish. I want to show them there's a standard that we're going to uphold, and we're going to do it every day, and I want to earn my leadership."
And so far, the early fruits of that leadership are beginning to show. Cowboys teammates Mazi Smith, Denzel Daxon, Luigi Vilain, assistant defensive line coach Bryan Bing and defensive analyst Tanzel Smart all volunteered to work as coaches for Thomas' camp, orchestrating drills and giving a helping hand to their new teammate.
