Vaughn College Elite Basketball Camp
Vaughn College recently held a two week elite basketball camp at Elmcor Recreation Center from July 14 to July 18 and July 21 to July 25. High school juniors, seniors, and college basketball players participated in the first week of camp, while eighth, ninth, and tenth graders participated in the second week of camp. Seventy campers participated in the Elite basketball camp throughout the two weeks.
"We wanted to restrict the number of campers that could participate in our basketball camp so we could have the best of the best competing against one another in their perspective age groups," said Vaughn Head Coach and Director of Athletics, Fitness and Wellness Ricky McCollum.
The coaching staff of the elite camp was composed of individuals that have played high school, college, and professional basketball internationally. "A lot of young basketball players want to play at the highest level and go to the NBA or play overseas," said Coach Jamaal Thomas. "But most of them have no idea what it takes to be able to compete at that level." Campers were put through a series of individual and group stations, and full court drills so that their talent could be evaluated by all of the coaches in attendance.
"When the coaching staff met about how we wanted to run camp, we decided to model it after the NBA combine and NBA draft," said Omari Wright, Assistant Men's and Women's basketball coach. "We wanted to see campers compete against one another for draft stock and position, and to see some people improve their draft stock in the camp and the see others stock drop. The best thing that we can teach these athletes is to always compete every time they step on the court; because you never know who is evaluating you."
After the evaluation period in the first and second days of the week long camp, coaches drafted players in a six round draft. Each coach had random predetermined draft picks in place before the elite camp draft. It was the goal of each coach to try to put together the best team with their draft picks to then compete in a week-long season, with playoffs and a championship game on the line. "Our camp wasn't just designed to evaluate players, but it was also an evaluation of the coaches we had on staff," said Nicole Conley, Head Women's coach and Assistant Director of Athletics and Student Services. "It was important for the coaches to pay attention to each participant during the first day of the camp and strategize who they would draft on their teams to compete with for the rest of the week"
The games in both weeks of camp were extremely competitive with very few blowouts. Holding a draft helped to disperse talent throughout the teams, so that no team was significantly better than another. "During the games, you can see different players emerge as leaders on their teams and as a coach you learn how to build team chemistry through different adverse situations," said Coach Robert Hampton. The playoffs are where the best players raise their game and you can see what players have it in them to rise to the occasion."
Week one Elite basketball camp champions was The Red team coached by Harold Tippet. The Red team had the best record throughout the week only losing one game. Camper Serge Mejia from the Red team won the most valuable player award, and camper Kirby Santos from team Orange won the most improved player award.
The champions in week two was the Navy team, coached by Omari Wright. The Navy team had the second best record in the camp. Their road to the finals was hard fought and dramatic as they one each playoff game by one point and sealed the championship game at the foul line with a one point victory. Camper Deshon Weston won the most valuable player award, and camper Keimaj Brown won the most improved player award. Both players were from team Navy.
It was a struggle, at first, to get all the participants at the elite camp to accept buy what we expected from them every day," said Coach Julia Fagan. "Most of them just wanted to play the games like any young athlete would at a basketball camp. Throughout the week you could see many of the participants of the camp improve in their individual games and that improvement showed in their game performance."
This is the second year Vaughn College has held a summer Basketball Camp; a tradition the College intends on continuing in the coming years. For more information on the camp or athletics at Vaughn, visit www.vaughnwarriors.com, or www.vaughn.edu.