NATCHEZ — Will Shields is back in Natchez with his youth football camp, and he has broken the camp up into two sessions to benefit the players.

The former Kansas City Chiefs offensive guard is hosting his annual camp at Cathedral High School this week, and instead of hosting the camp from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. featuring all age groups, Shields has broken it down with grades second through seventh from 9 a.m. to noon, and eighth through 12th grade from 6 to 9 p.m.

Shields said it helps him focus on certain skill areas commensurate with age and experience.

“It is a smaller group so we can focuses on them more and do drills that are finite to their positions,” Shields said.

Shields said he would break down the camp even more after Tuesday’s evaluation where he spent the first day examining the players’ speed, agility and long jump.

One thing Shields doesn’t have to measure, he said, is the players’ hearts.

Most of the players play high school football, which means they are voluntarily choosing to turn their already strenuous practice days into two-a-days as they practice with their school in the morning, and come back to camp with Shields in the evening.

“For the kids, it’s just the simple fact of them getting better,” Shields said. “It’s about learning little things they didn’t know when they first started so when their coaches tell them something, it’s not the first time they’ve heard it.”

Going through weights and conditioning with their schools and doing drills with a former NFL player can be tough, and it showed.

“We did weights this morning (at Natchez High School) and my legs are feeling it right now,” Natchez High School sophomore Ashton Knight said.

Knight said he hopes to improve his speed control and agility to become better at the defensive end spot for Natchez High.

Shields said players like Knight coming out to improve will always get ahead.

“This is what I call making up space,” Shields said. “Every day they come out and work on their game and their craft, they are gaining and making up space on that kid that had that spot.”

Today, Shields said he would start the camp with “chalk talk,” and tell the campers a little more about himself and where he comes from.

Shields is a 12-time All-Pro player who was inducted into the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame.

“I’ll give them more of my background,” he said. “The history part is important because it gives them the validity because now they think I just do this camp, but they don’t know who I am yet.”

From that point, players will work on skills specific to their positions.

Shields said players who want to join the camp today throughout the rest of the week are encouraged to come out and register at Cathedral before camp starts.