Tyler Lee head football coach Kurt Traylor speaks to former NFL quarterback Luke McCown, who Traylor coached at Jacksonville High School, Tuesday at the Beast Texas Passing Academy.

Young quarterbacks, receivers and offensive linemen were out at Robert E. Lee High School on Tuesday night for the opening of the Beast Texas Passing Academy.

And they even received a little surprise at the end of the night.

Luke McCown — a former Jacksonville High School standout who spent 14 years as a quarterback in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons and Dallas Cowboys — spoke with the campers before they went home.

McCown shared stories of teammates — Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Brooks and quarterback Drew Brees — and how they strived for greatness.

“Whatever it is you want to do, whether it’s football or anything else, desire to be great at it,” McCown told the campers.

McCown also spent time working with some of the quarterbacks during the camp as his son, Jonah, was participating in the camp.

“It was really cool,” said quarterback Garrett Chancelor, who will be a sophomore at Huntington High School. “I’m glad I could hear what he had to say with the wisdom he has.”

“That was awesome, really awesome,” said quarterback Trent Adams, who will be a junior for the Tyler Lee Red Raiders. “His little boy has an arm on him.”

“It’s really cool to learn from someone who has gone to the places you want to go,” said quarterback Travis Bryant, who will be a sophomore at Lake Travis High School.

Travis Bryant and his younger brother Trevor Bryant were in Tyler visiting their grandparents and decided to check out the camp.

“My cousin was coming to the camp and asked if we wanted to come, and I said sure,” Travis Bryant said. “It was great to come out here and get some work in.”

Lee head football coach Kurt Traylor said was good to see the talent at the camp from places like Lake Travis, Huntington, Lufkin, Henderson and more.

“I always start off the camp by telling the kids that we’re not trying to change anything your high school coach or the coach at whatever school you go to taught you,” Traylor said. “We just want to give you some tools to take back and hope to help you in some areas. We always talk about trying to get a little piece of cheese every day. Don’t try to eat the whole piece of cheese at once, get little nibbles of the cheese and piece it all together.”

Traylor said the camp really focuses on footwork and fundamentals.

At the end of the Tuesday’s session, awards were given out.

Lake Travis’ Trevor Bryant won the coachable award for the young receivers. Tyler Lee’s Colin Junot won the coachable award for the older receivers. The coachable award for quarterbacks went to Hubbard Middle School’s Samuel Williams and Huntington’s Chancelor.

The hustle awards went to Hubbard’s Daniel Kirksey and Charlie Bigby, Tyler Lee’s Brody Eaves and Henderson’s Calan Castles.

The playmaker awards went to Hubbard’s John Rainer, Henderson’s Austin Berry, Jacksonville’s Jonah McCown and Lake Travis’ Travis Bryant.

The camp, which is for students entering the seventh through 12th grades, continued on Wednesday night and will conclude on Thursday night with a session from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at Robert E. Lee High School.