Local basketball players came to Barrhead to take part in the tenth annual Hoopnics Basketball Camp on Monday, June 30, 2014.
The camp started on Monday and ran until Thursday, July 3, 2014. Former area resident and current head coach of the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves men’s basketball team, Chris Nicol, organized the camp. Attendees of the camp learned a wide range of skills including footwork, ball handling, dribbling, passing and shooting skills.
Nicol said that this was the tenth time he held the camp in Barrhead and looks forward to it every year.
“I have been doing camps, in one form or another, for 25 years and we come back here because it has become a type of tradition. They keep wanting me to come back, so I keep coming back and it is a lot of fun,” said Nicol. “From my standpoint, the most enjoyable part of my job is the summer camps and seeing the enthusiasm of the kids.”
This year, Nicol had 22 players register for the junior day camp, 28 for intermediate and 12 for the senior camp, numbers that are down from previous years.
“I think our highest number was in 90’s a few years ago. It was on the lower end but our advertising wasn’t as solid as in previous years,” added Nicol.
Nicol discussed the calibre of players at this year’s camp and in the region.
“There are some good kids locally and there are always a handful of kids that have the ability to play college basketball,” he said. “There are certainly kids that have come through this camp that are college level players. In the past, we had a young girl from Dapp that became national player of the year in the CCAA.”
This year, five assistant coaches, Cameron Vilcsak, Robert Brotherton, Thomas Koekkoeu, Josh Nicol, and Gerben Deinum, all of whom attended previous Hoopnics camps, joined Nicol. Nicol explained the benefits of having these athletes returning as coaches.
“For me, it’s great because they know how this camp works and they know some of my tendencies and know most of the drills, even though we change them every year,” he added.
Brotherton explained why he came back to help coach at this year’s camp.
“This camp was a significant part of my growing up. When I came here, I played basketball for something to do and Chris sparked an interest in me and it hasn’t gone away yet,” said Brotherton.
Nicol focused on three goals over the duration of the four-day camp. The three goals were that kids had to be coachable, they needed to be good teammates, and they needed to have fun.
“We opened each day talking about positive things and closed each day the same way. At the end of each day, with every group, all of the coaches told the kids something positive about what they did that day,” said Nicol. “I think we, as coaches, have an opportunity to have a positive impact on these kids. I think the whole idea of having a captive audience and using it as a platform to discuss some life skills is very important.”
Nicol shared his final thoughts on another Hoopnics Basketball Camp.
“I think the camp went very well. We had lots of enthusiasm, and the fact that the senior camp was a little bit smaller was good because those kids were able to get a little more attention,” he said. “I am in the business of developing people first and basketball players second because the most important thing is to be positive because it really is about people first.”
