The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

AN iconic staple in the Bahamas’ basketball culture, the 27th edition of the Jeff Rodgers Summer Basketball Camp is set to end in grand style.

The camp’s traditional “Fun Night” is all set for 7:30pm tonight at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

“What will be special this year is that the parents are going to be more involved in the fun night. They will be a part of some drills and a scrimmage game for themselves where parents will be playing against parents and parents will team up with their sons and daughters which should create some excitement,” Rodgers said.

During the night, campers will be able to showcase their skills learnt from the camp, and compete in several competitions.

The evening will be highlighted by a celebrity All-Star game featuring the camp instructors, made up of Bahamian national basketball team members against the visiting NBA stars.

Over the past few days, the camp has hosted Bahamian icon Mychal Thompson, his sons Klay (of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors) and Mychel (of the NBA D-League’s Santa Cruz Warriors), Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers, former NBA champion and Head Coach Byron Scott among many others.

“To us, this is the most important event in the camp because it gives the kids an opportunity to showcase all the skills they have learned over the past few weeks for their parents, friends and other interested basketball enthusiasts,” Rodgers said. “But again, more than anything else, we want to ensure that the campers understand the importance of developing healthy bodies with a positive outlook on life.”

Parents, along with the general public, are invited to watch an exhibition game with the trained instructors and the guest NBA stars.

Each of the visiting NBA icons conducted sessions with the campers aimed at instilling the values and ideals necessary for success on and off the court.

“We are so thankful to be able to reach this far and to still have the impact we have at 27 years. I really appreciate the time these guys take out to talk to the different groups, talk about their life experiences and the messages they deliver - staying in school, staying out of trouble, staying off drugs. Some of the same things I have been telling the past four weeks and 27 years,” Rodgers said. “The kids were so excited and it is always a great experience for them to have the guys.”

Rodgers said the camp aims at delivering a consistent message.

He said the message from the NBA players is identical to the ones they heard every day of the camp from the local home-grown talents who will be featured in tonight’s game.

Mitchell Johnson, Scott Farrington, Tehran Cox, Torrington Cox and Jeffrey Henfield were among the many instructors the campers were able to interact with on a daily basis.

“Every morning we had the instructors and the guys from the national team interact with the kids so they see it’s not just the NBA stars, they get it from our very own talent just to show that there’s one message: There are rules on the court and there are rules in life,” Rodgers said. “We put a lot of focus in talking and teaching them as much as possible about life off the basketball court. One of the most important things for them to understand, and to teach them about Bahamian society and the challenges they will face off the basketball court with a focus on integrity and character building,” he said.

For future editions of the camp as he looks ahead to next summer, Rodgers said more parental involvement is always desired.

“We want to get more parents involved and hopefully they can take a day off from work at some point just to spend a day at the camp because we always stress that we don’t want the focus to be just on basketball skills, but we want the focus to be on life skills and the parents should be a major part of that because we know there is more to life than just basketball. We are encouraged, the Lord has afforded us another opportunity to host this camp and we know it has a major impact on the lives of young people in our country,” he said.

Camp sponsors this year include BTC, Bahamas Southwest Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, the Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture, Scotiabank, Colina, JS Johnson, Royal Bank of Canada, Bahamas Business Solutions, ZNS, the Ministry of Tourism, Colombian Emeralds, Sapodilla Restaurant, Caribbean Bottling, Baha Mar, Atlantis, Jewel’s Party Supplies and Nautilus Water.