This is Easter Zack and I set up and ran our Sport Changes Life Victory Scholar Allstars Easter Basketball Camp. We did not however call it that the entire time, in order to save breath. We worked with some teammates and friends and used our home gym at Mercy College in Sligo to host this awesome event and had a great turnout.
The set up was for three days of non-stop basketball teaching, learning and fun. We ran through simple drills to teach the younger group some necessary fundamentals the first day, then let the madness ensue. The kids loved the themes we set up the following two days with ‘jersey’ day and ‘rep your town’ day. How many Steph jerseys do you think we saw? Correct, “a lot” was the right answer! Thankfully, there were no injuries or fights, and having run camps for years before this I could tell you some stories. None the less, everything ran smoothly for the younger group. The older group was also fun because they knew what they were doing so the camp competitions were more competitive. It was also more enjoyable to teach in depth and push their skillset somewhere new for them. The best coaches I have had always pushed me to be better and truly believed I could get better in the first place.
Shortly after this camp, meaning the day after, I travelled down the coast to Ballina. For you American’s reading this, it is not pronounced (Bah-lee-nah) with emphasis on the ‘li’, it is said (Bah-lih-nah) with emphasis on the ‘Ba’. Similar rules follow for the pronunciation of Donegal but in reverse, if that makes sense. Anyways, after learning how to correctly speak, I had the opportunity to coach for two more days in county Mayo. This group of kids was a little more coherent with the sport than the group in Sligo, which is okay. In Sligo we wanted kids who had never played before to join us and gain interest. This camp in Ballina was for guys, and five girls, that already had some training and game experience. Again, I got to coach with a little more fervour with the younger group and the older guys. In fact, the older group at this camp had some big guys that were susceptible to coaching and learning about post fundamentals. The other coach was Victory Scholar Cullen Donovan and we got to play together with the kids after each day of camp. They got dunked on a couple of times and could not have enjoyed it more.
Easter Joke:
What does the Easter Bunny get for making a basket?
Two points, just like everyone else.
