Three… two… one… swish. About 65 kids swarm around one of their fellow campers after he hit the game-winning shot. This might sound like a dream, but it was one lucky camper’s reality at Mike White’s summer youth basketball camp.
Georgia basketball head coach Mike White holds an annual summer camp for boys from third to 12th grade, teaching them various basketball and life skills. The camp takes place twice a year and is held in the Georgia basketball practice gym.
“It’s always just great to get kids and families to the University of Georgia, see our campus, see our facilities, to create the next future Bulldogs,” Georgia basketball’s director of operations, Ben Gonzalez, said.
During the day, campers will go through various stations to help them grow their skills as players. Some of the stations include defense, ball handling, shooting and film. Gonzalez said they want the kids learning both the mental and physical skills of the game.
However, the goal of the camp is not just to have the kids grow on the court, but also off of it.
“It’s a great opportunity for these kids to make a new friend,” Gonzalez said. “It’s a great opportunity for these kids to get out of their comfort zone, and it’s a great opportunity to also just grow as a person. Basketball is a tool for life as well.”
The camp mainly consists of local Athenians, and Gonzalez said his favorite part of the camp is watching the kids who come back every year.
The Mike White camp has only been around for four years, but Georgia basketball has been hosting youth basketball camps for decades.
One parent emailed Gonzalez a picture of an award he had won at the Georgia youth basketball camp when he attended it back in the 1980s. That parent is now sending their kid to the Mike White basketball camp a whole generation later.
During the four years Gonzalez has been around, his favorite moment was receiving an email from a mom telling him this was going to be her son’s last year attending the camp because he was going to be on the varsity basketball team. The kid had gone to the camp all four years Gonzalez had been there and he was proud of how much he had grown in those years.
There are a lot of different skill levels and ages at the camp, but they still try to find ways to make it fun for everyone.
Gonzalez’s favorite moment from this year’s camp happened in their all-star game. For the all-star game, they gather all of the campers together and split them into two teams consisting of all different age ranges. They then call out random people from each team and have them go head-to-head in three versus three, five versus five, or whatever Gonzalez wants to see that day.
This all-star game is where the camper hit the buzzer-beater and was swarmed by all of his fellow campers. Gonzalez says that camaraderie and love for the game are what make it his favorite part of camp.