A three-day Christmas Basketball Camp which was held recently in Portsmouth, has been dubbed a success.
The camp, which ran from December 27 to 30, was a collaborative effort of the Rotary Club of Grande Praire After Five (GPRC) and Hoopnics Basketball Camp Dominica based in Canada along with Marketing Edge, a Dominican initiative aimed at impacting the lives of children and adults through sports.
Director of Hoopnics Basketball Camp and Head Coach of GPRC Wolves Mens’ Basketball in Canada, Chris Nicol, told Dominica News Online (DNO) on Wednesday, that the camp which accommodated sixty young people between the ages of 10 and 18, was very successful.
“We did instructions with basic skills, ball handling and shooting…we try to incorporate both basic skills along with basic team concepts,” he said, adding that his team worked very positively with the young people.
“We worked very positively with the kids and our camp is always about positivity and working together along with working to develop them into better basketball players,” Coach Nichol said.
He said based on the positive feedback received for this first time attempt in Dominica, his group would “certainly” like to come back and “take another go at it.”
According to Nichol, the idea of hosting the camp is not only to create a short-term impact but, “we would like this to be a stepping stone for the coaches and players to be able to move forward.”
Meanwhile, executive director of Atlantique View Resort and owner of Marketing Edge, Jerry Williams, said the camp achieved what it needed to in getting the youth involved in basketball, “and also showing them the different avenues as to how to learn the sport.”
He noted that the main objective of the camp is to use basketball as a stepping stone to pave the way for young persons to receive a University education and also, “to empower persons in the north to develop the game of basketball.”
President of the Rotary Club of Grande Prairie After Five and Hoopnics Basketball Camp, Taj Johnson, is from the north of Dominica but has resided in Canada for the past twenty-five (25) years.
He said that one of his goals for the camp “is to help to develop the north; to try to help where I came from and try to utilize the platform.”
Each camp participant was presented with a T- Shirt and back pack and according to Johnson, “They were excited about that and it was good to see the smiles on their faces.”
He continued, “We utilized basketball to get in with the kids but it doesn’t need to end or continue at basketball. It could be community building in other avenues, for example local health centre or giving back to local schools or helping refurbish playgrounds.”
In release, the group stated that it is very possible that Dominica could host international and regional tournaments, seminars and other related sporting events throughout the year which could have a positive impact on tourism and facilitate the introduction of educational programs for the island athletes and administrators.”
The company’s aim for the 2015 summer holiday is to host a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) or a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) international football (soccer) tournament.
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