Metro-east youth police camp alumni: One is a state trooper, another is in the NFL

Spring was big for Metro-East Team Illinois Youth Police Camp alumni.

In a full-circle moment, three-time camp attendee Marquis Jones, originally from East St. Louis, officially became an Illinois State Police trooper in late March.

Less than a month later, Venice’s Dominic Lovett, another youth camp alumnus, was drafted by the NFL’s Detroit Lions as a wide receiver.

Both achieved long-time dreams, said Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Calvin Dye Jr., the metro-east camp’s coordinator.

“Proud is an understatement,” Dye said. “I’m also really proud that myself and other officers and military personnel had an influence on their lives.”

Both Lovett and Jones said the Team Illinois Youth Police Camp brought lifelong relationships, lessons and helped shape them into the people they are today.

“The youth camp helped put me on the path of wanting to achieve my goals and kept me in a straight line,” Jones said.

NFL’s Lovett remembers “one of the best experiences”

There are four Team Illinois Youth Police Camps across the state that serve both girls and boys. The metro-east camp that Jones and Lovett attended is held at Principia College in Elsah. Law enforcement and military personnel run the week-long, military-modeled camps and pack the schedule with physical drills, field trips and presentations on topics like safety and career readiness.

“We’re trying to teach them the basic fundamentals that they’re going to need to succeed in life,” Dye said.

Lovett recalled that when he brought a flyer about the camp home from school, he didn’t want to go. But his mom thought it would be a good idea, he said.

It ended up being “one of the best experiences” Lovett had, so he went back the following year.

It helped drive him, he said, through his ongoing football career, which included two years at the University of Missouri, two more at the University Georgia and a seventh-round pick in this year’s NFL Draft.

“Discipline is everything,” Lovett said, reflecting on what he learned from the youth camp. “Your character will take you a very long way, being respectful of their time and how you treat people goes a very long way, because I have lifelong mentors and teachers who I still talk to.”

It’s the relationships that Lovett said he appreciates most about the camp. Dye and other Illinois State Police officers were present for all of Lovett’s big moments: his East St. Louis Senior High graduation, college signing day and move-in day at Mizzou. Dye was even with Lovett on April 26 when he was drafted to the National Football League.

“I tell them all of the time that I’m thankful I went to the camp,” Lovett said.

State police camp started Jones’ law enforcement career

Jones, who attended his first camp when he was 13, said he also appreciates the relationships born out of the camp. He left his final year with a slew of law enforcement mentors and a close friend, who also grew up to be a police officer.

Dye said there are a few main reasons why teens attend the youth camp. There are those who are referred to the camp by their school and a very small percentage are ordered by a court to attend. Lovett said he knew some cadets who attended camp because they saw it as a cool way to spend their summer.

And a few, Dye said, attend because they’re interested in a career in law enforcement or the military. Jones fits into that category.

Years before Jones was a youth camp cadet, he knew he wanted to work in public service. He admired his grandfather, a police sergeant in East St. Louis, and said he watched action-packed military commercials with awe.

The youth camp solidified Jones’ aspirations, he said. As Dye put it, Jones “fell in love with the discipline.”

When Jones was at Cahokia High School, he completed its Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and joined the Army National Guard. He later became a Military Police officer, which is a position he still holds today. Jones started his municipal law enforcement career in 2016, and has since worked at multiple police departments in Missouri and Illinois.

The youth camp’s rigid schedule, dress code, pushups, and room inspections mirrored his experience at other military and police academies, he said.

“It gave me exposure to what I was going to experience when I became an adult in joining the Military and joining a police academy …” Jones said. “I was able to excel because I knew what I was getting myself into.”

In a way, each career move traces back to Jones’ days at the youth camp. During his second and third year at the camp, troopers would do job interview preparation activities with Jones and other cadet mentors. At one point, they gave the cadet mentors leather folders, decorated with the state police emblem, to keep their notes in.

Jones still digs up that folder whenever he has a new job opportunity. He revisits the notes, and brings the folder with him to every interview. It’s almost like a good luck charm, Jones said.

“(At camp, the troopers were) talking to us about how whenever you pick a career, you will never go to work ever again, because this is something you truly want to do,” Jones said. “You will wake up and be excited that you’re going because this is your career.”

By that standard, Jones said, he hasn’t worked a day since he started his law enforcement journey.

How to sign up

Sign up for the Metro-East Team Illinois Youth Police Camp ends Monday, June 16. Those interested in signing up should contact Dye at calvin.dye@illinois.gov or 217-685-4752, or ISP Troop 8 Administrative Assistant Sandra Voytas at sandra.voytas@illinois.gov or 618-420-2804.

The camp costs $20 per attendee. Dye said in order to keep the cost manageable for families, the camp relies heavily on donations. Those interested in donating should email Dye or Voytas.

This story was originally published June 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.