Hunter Frost

Evaluation Essay

Composition 1

Basketball Camp

This summer I participated in a basketball camp with my varsity basketball team in

southeastern Ohio. My team rode on a bus for 4 hours to get there, leaving by 5:30 in

the morning. Our coach informed my team about the camp and the counselors upon

arriving. We knew what we were going there to do and to focus on our strengths and

weaknesses. The camp was to further our exposure to great talent and provide us with

a view of how to play without fouls called. My teammates and I worked very hard

throughout the entirety of the basketball camp to strengthen us individually and as a

team.

Furthermore, my team and I slept in the main barn, which had 20 bunk beds for our

team. We were rarely in our sleeping quarters, as we mainly were there to gain

instruction to further our skills on the court. We would play basketball “pickup” games all

day on different outdoor and indoor courts throughout the camp area. We played 30-35

pickup games a day that we were at basketball camp. These games were intense and

took a lot of endurance and will to win. My team was tested match to match because we

were only running 8 guys on the varsity team. The basketball camp is a well known

camp established and maintained by Larry Huggins. Although, we did not see much of

Larry, the program was a success overall. His great knowledge of basketball helped the

campers with their learning of the sport.

 With this in mind, the atmosphere of the camp is very intense and you have to adapt

to the environment around you. The whole week was a mess with the weather, we

experienced a ton of rain and flooding to the outside courts. We had to adapt and

handle these conditions all week. The conditions were to represent “roughing it”

scenarios as if we were camping and living in an older era. We ate in a wide cafeteria

with tons of other teams and the food was disgusting. Most of the players on my team

brought many snacks to fulfil them during the long week of camp.

Therefore, my team accepted what the conditions were and went out and focused on

performing to the best of their abilities. We grew collectively as a program within our

week of camp with coach Huggins and the staff involved at the camp. As a unit, we

embraced the toughness needed to compete. My team learned quite a lot about each

other as individuals, and saw that as a team we can compete with anybody. The

basketball camp was a great experience for our program to help us see each other grow

and develop on and off the court. Our team did a tremendous job on the last day of

camp, where we played 26 pickup games before noon. The impressive part was that we

drove 4 hours home and played in our summer league tournament game at 6. We

experienced a lot of physical pain through the journey of camp and coming home to

continue playing basketball.

All in all, the basketball camp in southeastern Ohio was a success and tested my

teammates and I on and off the court. The 14 outdoor courts, sleeping quarters, and

apartment types play a role in creating a diverse environment for all. The coaches have

their own sleeping area near the large cafeteria up on the hill. The camp is organized

and show tremendous results of improving a team’s toughness. In addition, the

atmosphere is astonishing and unique compared to many other basketball camps. Most

traditional camps are in indoor gyms and are normally one day events for a couple of

hours and introduce basic skills and fundamentals of basketball. This camp is

completely different than the traditional camps and creates an environment that is

attractive to all groups!