Taylor has produced his camp for so long that on Friday

Pittsburgh Steeler Ike Taylor wanted to give back to the community that raised him for so many years, and for the past decade, he's been doing just that.

Friday marked the 10th year the Steeler cornerback teamed together with Gretna's Arden Cahill Academy to host his Face Me Ike Youth Football Camp for the school's Camp Corral campers.

Two hundred children ages 6 to 14 spent the afternoon with Taylor and a few of his Steeler teammates, as well as local football coaches in what Taylor described as the opportunity to make memories with real NFL athletes.

"10 years is a long time," Taylor said. "The first year we didn't really know what to expect and year after year it gets better, the crowd gets bigger, the kids have more fun. The expectation between Mr. and Mrs. Cahill and I, we have high expectations. As long as the kids have fun it really doesn't matter."

Taylor has produced his camp for so long that on Friday, the State of Louisiana House of Representatives made a proclamation in Taylor's name thanking him for all the work he's done for the New Orleans community.

"When you talk about hospitality, when you talk about soulful people when you talk about people who care about people, you're talking about New Orleans," Taylor said.

The goal of the camp is to give local youths the opportunity to spend time with their athletic role models much in the same way Taylor did when he was a young athlete growing up in the New Orleans area.

Taylor referenced several players he was able to work with in camps while attending Marion Abramson High School in New Orleans East and the impression they left on his life.

The two-time Super Bowl champion brought with him several Steeler defensive backs to his camp. Fellow cornerbacks Curtis Brown and Cortez Allen both attended the camp for the first time while William Gay is in his fifth year as a guest coach, despite having no prior connection to the city of New Orleans.

"It doesn't matter where it's at," Gay said. "We're just out here serving the kids and letting them be around some guys they see on Sundays who they can listen to and talk to and touch. It's pretty important to us. All you want to do is put a smile on a kids face. It's an amazing feeling."

Gay, who is returning to Pittsburgh this season after spending the 2012 season in Arizona, said Taylor's camp is setting the standard for youth football camps after his 10 years of service to the community.

The former University of Louisiana-Lafayette standout also stressed the importance of the fact that everything the campers are doing are the same drills the Steelers do in their training -- only slightly tailored to accommodate those middle schoolers who aren't quite NFL-ready just yet.

Children received the opportunity to run cone drills, ladder drills and even sprint with training parachutes.

Taylor, who has 14 interceptions and 449 tackles in his career, said he is preparing for an eventual retirement. The ten-year veteran said he hopes to continue the camp once he retires and make it into something bigger, hopefully through multiple days and expanded to include more young Louisiana athletes from around the state.

But for now, Taylor is fully focused on his own talents and the future of the Steelers organization. "I look at it as, year-in and year-out, they're trying to draft a corner to take my place. Going into the offseason I'm remembering that," Taylor said.

Pittsburgh watched division rival Baltimore hoist the Lombardi Trophy last season while the Steelers missed the playoffs for the first time since 2009, but Taylor said his team will be ready to play come next season.

When asked about New Orleans acquiring cornerback Keenan Lewis during the offseason and if Taylor would have been competing with him for the starting job in Pittsburgh if Lewis were still there, Taylor expressed complete confidence in his starting role with the Steeler defense despite missing the end of last season with an injury.

"I wasn't battling with anybody," Taylor said. "[Lewis] would've been battling with Curtis and Cortez."

-- More Story :story.officialnflfansshop.com

-- If you need the Nike NFL Jerseys:Click Here