Napier Brings All Pro Dad Experience to UF
Saturday, April 22, 2023 | Football
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Billy Napier's father was a teacher and coach at the local high school in Chatsworth, Ga. The University of Florida coach has vivid memories of being around his father constantly as a child, running around the football building at Murray County High and eventually running around the stadium as his father's quarterback. Napier's dad was his role model. The father-son images he has tucked away are priceless.
On Saturday, Napier stood in front of more than a hundred dads in an effort to facilitate similar memories for them, but with the hope — if not promise — of making more such memories between parents and their children in the future.
"They want our time," Napier said.
The UF Indoor Practice Facility was the site of Gainesville's first All Pro Dad Experience, an event that for nearly two decades has been staged more than 100 times in more than 30 different NFL, MLB and NCAA markets nationally, using a pro or college team's grounds for interactive events designed to strengthen parent-child relationships and deliver useful fatherhood tips.
For about three hours Saturday morning, children up to eighth graders partnered with their parents — mostly fathers, but moms, aunts, grandfathers and grandmothers and all role models were welcome — to bounce around to a variety of stations and participate in fun, football-like drills with the goal of fostering time and activity together.
With emphasis on together.
"In our society and culture there is a need for stronger families. There is a need for an emphasis and awareness of fatherhood," said Napier, father of three to Annie (10), Sammy (8) and Charlie (6). "For me, this is more of a big-picture approach. We have an opportunity at a place like this, with the platform that we have, to bring awareness to a great organization."
All Pro Dad was founded by Tampa resident Mark Merrell in 1997, as an off-shoot of his nonprofit Family First, an organization dedicated to bringing families closer together. All Pro Dad got a boost when Tony Dungy, then head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the time and one of the most revered men in professional football, came on as national spokesperson.
Per its mission state, All Pro Dad is "a group of people passionately committed to bringing intentional focus to fathers around the world. Our message will inspire you to embrace who you are, give you tenderness of heart, and boldness of character as a dad and husband," while also providing helpful suggestions to further grow and develop the parent-child bond.
The story goes that when Dungy got involved and All Pro Dad announced its inaugural Experience event organizers were expected a couple hundred to show up at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. They got more than 4,000, instead.
And away things went from there.
There are currently 1,435 national All Pro Dad chapters across the country, including 354 in the state of Florida. Jason Hood, the program's national director, was on hand for the UF event.
"People think back to things they did with their dad that really stick in their mind, so we're obviously grateful to Coach Napier and the University of Florida to provide us this phenomenal venue and this opportunity here," Hood said. "It's going to create the kind of real, long-lasting memories that we hope will get dads addicted to what they can create with these kids."
Napier encouraged all participating parents to engage in a cause he's passionate about; one that is constantly with him in the memory of his father.
[For information on how to get involved with All Pro Dad, click here]
"This works best when it's just not a one-time-of-year event," said Napier, who spoke of All Pro Dad's monthly initiative that partners with the Florida Department of Education and allows parents to join their children for time together at school once a month. "There is a curriculum here that is based off character, based off values. I think it's awesome to have the opportunity to go into the school and be around the teachers, be around the administrators and ultimately affect positive change.
