Kevin Jackson and Antonio Langham earned All-American recognition as defensive backs at Alabama and played professional football.

On Saturday at Highpoint Park in Prichard, they worked in the sun on a 90-some-degree day trying – sometimes successfully, depending on the age group – to get youngsters around four cones in common football drills.

Jackson and Langham were part of an all-star coaching staff that came out for the Palmer Williams Group’s 10th annual Athletic Youth Camp.

“It’s a milestone,” Sherman Williams said of reaching Camp No. 10. “In most things that people do or when they start a business, they normally fail within the first three years.”

But the Palmer Williams Group has persevered since its first event on June 8, 2014, at Prichard Municipal Stadium, just a few months after Williams had been released from prison.

A Blount High School star who went on to play on championship teams for Alabama and the Dallas Cowboys, Williams was found guilty on Dec. 6, 2000, by a federal jury in Mobile of one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and two counts of attempting to possess marijuana with intent to distribute. He also pleaded guilty to a counterfeiting charge.

While Williams was in prison, his college roommate, David Palmer, kept in touch with him. Like Williams, Palmer had been a state prep star – at Jackson-Olin in Birmingham – and played in the NFL after the Crimson Tide.

Williams was incarcerated for 15 years, and when he was released from prison, he and his former teammate sought a way to influence disadvantaged youngsters in a positive manner before the children’s minds acclimated to the negative influences they commonly saw around them. The Palmer-Williams Group was founded by Palmer and Williams in 2014.

“It’s been a journey,” Williams said of keeping the organization going, even through a pandemic. “I did 15 years in prison, so when you do 15 years in prison and come out and give back 15 years of your life helping the community, then I think I can keep fighting like I fought my way through that prison sentence.”

In addition to Jackson and Lockett, the coaches for Saturday’s camp included former Alabama standouts Chris Edwards, Brad Ford, Pierre Goode and Vic Lockett, with Pat Thomas representing Auburn. Beyond the football drills, the Williamson High School cheerleaders directed the cheer portion of Saturday’s camp.

“It’s about the community,” Williams said. “We got a great group of people that support our organization. When people see the great support from all our sponsors, people want to be a part of it. And then you see the children out here having a good time, so that’s what it’s all about.”

While Highpoint Park serves as the hub for the Palmer Williams Group’s Highpoint Cowboys youth teams in football, baseball, basketball and soccer, plus the cheer program, the organization is involved in more than athletics.

“We are expanding to the Mobile and Baldwin County Public School systems,” Williams said. “We have an Entrepreneurial Youth of America Club that we’re really focusing on. We help children start businesses in high school that may not have the opportunity to go to college. College is not for everybody. We feel like if we give them the knowledge that it takes to start their own business, then that can curb some of the crime rate, curb some of the recidivism. If a person knows how to start a business and run a business, then they probably have a better chance of not committing a crime.”

Williams wants everyone interest in knowing more about the Palmer Williams Group to visit the organization’s website, which provides information on the programs such as Lifesync Academy and financial-literacy events.

“We’re a 100 percent volunteer program,” Williams said. “We have no paid employees. All my time is donated. All the gentlemen out here helping us today, their time is donated. People can go on our website, and they can make a donation because we offer everything free of charge and we also give gifts to the participants. They can go on our website at palmerwilliamsgroup.org, or they can call me personally at 251-644-3125. Call me up, text me, leave me a message, I’ll call you back. However we got to get it done, we’re willing to do it.”

Williams said people should take a look at what the Palmer Williams Group is doing “because it’s a benefit for the children. The children are our future. We want to make sure we give them the knowledge, inspiration and passion to follow their dreams. When you’re talking about removing one from the circumstances they might be in and helping them go to the next level of being successful, then that’s all worth it.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.