The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

FOR over a decade, local coaches have partnered with a group of US- based coaches to host a programme aimed at using basketball to develop the lives of young student athletes and the Bahamian community at large.

This year marks the 15th edition of the “Basketball Smiles” camp, which began Monday and continues through Wednesday at the CI Gibson Gymnasium.

The camp, free of charge to all participants, continues today 3:30pm to 7pm and concludes tomorrow 9am to 12:15pm for girls and 1pm to 4:15pm for boys.

Basketball Smiles began in 1999 when coach Sam Nichols from McMurry University and HO Nash head coach Pattie Johnson met in San Jose California at the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Convention.

Since then, over 5,000 boys and girls across the Bahamas have benefitted from camps and the Life Skills Programme of Basketball Smiles.

“When Pattie and I started this 15 years ago, we made two promises: No child would ever be turned away and no child would ever pay. We want to continue to build on what we have done thus far and the thing that we like is the continuity,” Nichols said. “We have had about a 40-60 per cent return rate in campers so that way we get to reinforce with boys and girls that we have had year after year after year. It’s all about building relationships. We know them, we know their families, we know their history so that makes a huge difference and allows us to have a greater impact on their lives.”

He added that social media has had a profound impact on the ability of the group to impact student athletes year round.

“Our past campers are always very complimentary. One of the newest features has been that social media has given us greater access and has allowed us to do a lot of mentoring over the Internet. If they are having problems at school or having problems in the community, they have been able to reach out to us. That has been a dynamic that has benefitted both sides and we have become a part of their lives,” he said. “The character and social responsibility is so much a part of basketball smiles because it’s not about just coming in the gym and shooting baskets, it’s about developing citizenship and helping to build a better Commonwealth of the Bahamas through basketball and through character development.”

Nichols is a retired Hall of Fame head women’s basketball coach at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas. He was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Honour in 1999, and retired in 2007 with over 600 career wins.

His r�sum� includes a 70 per cent winning percentage in over three decades of coaching. He has also written two basketball textbooks, and has conducted basketball clinics all over the world, including Russia and Africa.

Nichols is joined by coach Randy Thompson, vice-president and director of operations for Basketball Smiles, along with Texas coaches Jon and Stephanie Pastusek, Matt Brown, Kirbie Compston, Adam Young and Liz Young, Cody Victor, Xavier Jackson, Katie Lucus, Meg Brackenberry, Ashley Ebeling, Jo Jenkins, Alex Jenkins, and Summer Randle.

The large group of coaches is just one added benefit to the 15th edition of the camp.

“We have 16 coaches, the most coaches we have ever had,” Nichols said. “This year we want to impart a vision because the Bible says without a vision people stumble all over themselves and a lot of the kids that play basketball in the US as well as in the Bahamas, they don’t have a vision, they just wander around from one activity to the next. We want to try to get these young men and women to have a vision where they want to be years from now and not settle for anything less than success.”

Basketball Smiles is sponsored in part in Nassau by Scotiabank, Kelly’s, The Green Parrot, Rotary Club of Nassau Sunrise, and Rotary Club of East Nassau.