Atlanta Falcons secondary coach Justin Hood walks the sidelines during an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Thursday, Dec 11, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Peter Joneleit)

For the second consecutive year, Atlanta Falcons secondary coach and Youngstown native Justin Hood will be hosting a free youth football camp for middle schoolers at Youngstown State’s Watson & Tressel Training Site (WATTS).

Hood, a Chaney High School alumnus, said he founded his organization, the Audible Project, and leads the camp, which is for sixth through eighth graders and is scheduled for today, to give back to kids from his hometown and share his journey with others.

“I think there are a lot of young people there that need positive role models to see, and need to be taught how to course-correct or need to be taught how to set goals, work backwards and then go achieve them in terms of taking the correct steps to get there,” Hood said.

After graduating from Chaney in 2004, Hood attended and played football at Division II Ashland University, where he was a four-year starting cornerback, two-year team captain and earned all-conference honors. A few years later, he embarked on a coaching career, first as an intern for the University of Oregon and then the New York Giants.

Following a year as a graduate assistant at the University of Illinois and a season as the defensive coordinator at Division III Capital University, Hood jumped up to the FCS level with Davidson College, where he was safeties coach and, during the 2017 season, the interim head coach. Stints at Western Carolina University and Kent State University followed.

In 2021, he joined the Green Bay Packers’ coaching staff, serving as a defensive quality control coach for three seasons before being hired by the Falcons as their secondary coach. This offseason, after Kevin Stefanski succeeded Raheem Morris as Atlanta’s head coach, the Falcons retained Hood.

Hood said he will be joined at the camp by 10 NFL coaches, up from five who came with him for the inaugural event a year ago. Among those who will help with instruction is Los Angeles Chargers defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale, who, like Hood, graduated from Chaney before attending Ashland University and embarking on a coaching career.

Hood said that the camp will also feature coaches from the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers, in addition to high school and youth football coaches.

“It’s kind of cool to see the guys that are willing to take time out of their free time and time away from their families to come give back to the kids in Youngstown, Ohio,” Hood said. “That’s all based on the relationships that I have with them. I asked them to come, and they said yes, so they’re paying for flights to Cleveland or Pittsburgh or Akron, wherever they’re flying, and they’re driving in and renting their own cars, paying for the hotel rooms, just to come and give back. I’m extremely humbled by it. I thank those people for coming to support my dream.”

Hood said he expected between 150 and 200 campers for this year’s event, which had “reached full capacity,” according to the online registration sheet.

The camp, Hood said, is not about having the “coolest hype music” or walking away with the “coolest camp t-shirt.” He said it will ideally be much more important than that.

“I hope they learn that they can,” Hood said. “When I say they can, what I truly mean by that is, whatever their goals are, they are accomplishable. They can be reached. You need a little bit of resiliency. You need some hard work and dedication. You need support. You need someone to inspire, motivate. You need self-discipline. Hopefully, they can learn all of those things from us. And I truly think I embody that, in the sense of I’ve never been the best athlete on any team I’ve played on – not one single team. I’ve never been the smartest, the biggest, but I’ve always kept my head down and worked and really tried to take advice from people who were in positions that I looked up to, or people who were in positions that I was trying to get to achieve their level, if you will. So, hopefully, the young people can learn that they can.”