Spring Break
Basketball camp scores slam dunk
By: Jessica Cady
Issue date: 6/28/07 Section: News
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From Sunday through Thursday, boys between the ages of 8 and 18 had the opportunity to attend the Mark Turgeon Basketball Camp.
Twenty-nine coaches and 14 staff members supervised the 273 campers. The coaches, who taught campers the fundamentals of basketball, included Texas A&M basketball players, coaches and student managers, as well as high school coaches from around Texas.
The camp schedule was not easy, and lasted from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. or later. Campers participated in drills, stations, hot-shot competitions, one-on-one and three-on-three games, and three division games per day.
"You have to wear [the campers] out during the day or they'll keep the staff up at night," said camp director Peter Warden.
Warden, Class of 2005, and his right-hand man, Chief of Staff Charlie Stavlo, Class of 2003, have both staffed the basketball camp for six years.
The four-day long camp ended with a tournament championship game and award ceremony. Certificates were awarded to all of the campers and trophies were presented as specialty awards.
Warden said Mark Turgeon, A&M men's basketball coach, made a few changes to the camp program, which stresses taking care of the children and teaching them to appreciate the growing popularity of youth basketball.
"Every time you have a different coach putting a camp together it is going to be a little different. The overall structure is the same, though," Warden said.
Warden said not just anyone could be manager.
"It takes a special person to be a manager. Camp is a great way to break in guys who want to be a manager for the following year," Warden said.
The camp, which had been in planning since October, had a few hitches. There were injuries: one dislocated shoulder and two sprained ankles. The second night of camp, a leak was found in the roof of G. Rollie.
"It wasn't really a leak. It was more like a faucet coming out of the ceiling," he said.
The leak was fixed at 5:30 a.m. at the expense of the staffers' sleep. Warden and Stavlo both slept for less than an hour that night.
"Timing is everything in camp. We are constantly adjusting and tweaking. Camp is careful coordination," Warden said.
Campers were given an optional afternoon for free time at the end of the week to give them a break and keep them fresh for the final day and the tournament. The campers used the time to swim, play games, sleep or watch television while the staffers took a moment to rest.
Coaches and staffers stressed the element of fun, in the game of basketball and in the camp.
On the last night of camp there was a slam-dunk contest and a dance-off between a 9-year old camper nicknamed "Candy-man" and A&M sports-star Martellus Bennett. "Candy-man" got his name by spending his entire $100 allowance on candy at the camp's convenience store last year.
The camp's No. 1 rule stresses the honor of being at a Texas A&M basketball camp. Campers are not allowed to wear logos from any other school and risk being punished if they do.
"If I see any camper wearing a Longhorn hat or Texas Tech shorts, I take my tape and I wrap it over their entire hat or all over their shorts and I write 'A&M' on it," Stavlo said.
Although the camp is a lot of hard work, Warden and Stavlo said it was a lot of fun and a great activity for the campers.
"This camp is not a one-mindset thing. We want to do good for [the campers] on many different levels," Warden said.
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