Even before he graduated from Escambia, Ladarian “Squirrel” Clardy told Gators head coach Mike Bennett he wanted to give back and hold a camp at his alma mater every year.
On July 18, he got his chance, and it was about more than just football. Clardy, who will be a sophomore defensive back at Ole Miss this fall, hosted the Stop the Gun Violence Football Camp along with his father, LaDaron, a long-time area youth football coach.
The camp was in honor of Ladarian Clardy’s younger brother, Ladarius, who was shot and killed on July 1, 2021 in a drive-by shooting when he was mistaken for somebody else after leaving a dice game.
“I just want to be an example,” Ladarian Clardy said. “I lost my big brother, the closest person in my life. I just had to keep working, keep my head down, just keep working and stay focused. I just want to show them it’s possible, you could do it.”
Known as “LD” to his friends and family, he had just finished his freshman season at Kennesaw State and had an excellent high school career at Pine Forest.
“Ladarius trained hard since he was 4 years old,” LaDaron Clardy said of his older son. “He would light up every room he walked in. He was a great student athlete, he maintained a 3.5 GPA even in college. He was a standup guy. For a father and mother of kids, you couldn’t (want) no different because Ladarius was one of a kind. He had a work ethic that was none to match.”
Ladarian followed his older brother everywhere and competed with him in everything, whether it was football or in the classroom. It took time for Ladarian to get back on track after his brother’s death.
Following his freshman football season, Ladarian spent a semester at Success Academy, an alternative school in Escambia County. He didn’t know if he would play football again, but kept working.
According to Ladaran Clardy, Bennett checked on the family every day. By his senior year, Ladarian Clardy had blossomed from a kid who scored every time he touched the ball in youth football into a four-star recruit and PNJ Player of the Year.
As a senior, he recorded 60 tackles and two interceptions on defense, caught 16 passes for 396 yards and four touchdowns and returned a kickoff and punt for a touchdown. He appeared in 11 games as a freshman for Ole Miss, recording seven tackles.
“For Squirrel to put this on and LD to put this on, ‘Stop the Gun Violence,’ we need to stop the gun violence,” Bennett said. “I’ve lost way too many players to gun violence and I hate it every time. It’s hard as a coach to have to speak at the funeral as one of your kids. I hope the community gets out and supports this on a yearly basis and we’ll make it bigger and bigger.”
Like Martin Emerson’s camp the week before, this was another Pensacola football reunion. Besides Bennett, Milton assistant coach Ryan Vandevort, who was on the staff at Pine Forest when Ladarius was there, was there helping out.
So was Pensacola High School defensive coordinator Keyon Hilton, who used to coach at South Florida. Kadetrix “JJ” Marcus, who coached defensive backs at Escambia last year and knows the Clardy family, also volunteered, as did former NFL defensive back Loucheiz Purifoy.
Pooda Walker, who just finished his college career as a defensive lineman at Memphis, and Chris Page, who played at UWF, volunteered and spoke to the campers about LD’s impact. Current area stars, like Pace athlete and Mercer commit Char’son Floyd and Pensacola running back Caleb Willoughby, also volunteered.
Former NFL running back and Escambia legend Trent Richardson spoke to campers too, as the camp’s purpose hit close to him. Richardson helped put on camps with Ladaron Clardy during his playing days.
He talked about how his nephew, Phillip “PJ” Shepard was killed in a Fourth of July shooting in downtown Pensacola, and Richardson left to attend his funeral after speaking at the camp.
“Like I tell people, man, if you have a gun, it’s almost like having a basketball,” Richardson said. “If I have a basketball I’m going to dribble it. Like why put a gun in these kids’ hands? They’re young and now we have kids that aren’t going to experience life. PJ, he’s got a son that’s one year old. He’ll never get to know his dad….It’s happening too much.”
Richardson, along with other speakers, emphasized personal responsibility to try to make the community a better place, focusing on life outside of football and not just what they do with the game.
They emphasized taking care of business in the classroom, making good decisions off the field and finding mentors in the community as ways to set someone up for success when sports stop.
“Just show them and give them motivation,” Ladarian Clardy said. “Motivation that they can be a successful business, man. Motivation that they can be a successful person if they go in the military, or if they get a trade, or if they don’t make it in football because one day football is going to stop.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Ole Miss DB Ladarian Clardy hosts youth camp in late brother’s memory
Reporting by Justin Fitzgerald, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Justin Fitzgerald, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
