On June 19th, Philadelphia Youth Basketball (PYB) kicked off its first week of our Collegiate Summer Camp Series at Philadelphia University. Throughout the week a total of 55 campers participated in full camp days packed with basketball skills and drills, competitive gameplay, and daily academic lessons. Jim Reilly, Philadelphia University’s Assistant Head Coach, was the head coach of the camp week. Coach Reilly pushed the campers to through daily morning station work and competitive afternoon games where each and every camper had the opportunity to grow as individual players and teammates. Additionally, the campers grew as leaders and engaged citizens after listening to guest speaker, Nate Blackwell, share his cautionary yet inspirational story about his battle with addiction and subsequent journey back to health and well being.
Friday, June 30th marks the end our PYB’s second week of its Collegiate Summer Camp series at Chestnut Hill College. Jesse Balcer, Head Coach of Chestnut Hill College’s Men’s Basketball team, ran the camp week for approximately 40 campers. With the low camper to coach ratio, Coach Balcer and the staff of PYB camp-interns were able to emphasize individualized skills development. Off the court, groups of campers engaged in competitive games of NBA Math Hoops, where they practiced basic principles of math using the statistics of real NBA players in order to defeat their opponents. Furthermore, daily social justice and literacy lessons generated interesting discussions, some of which included a discussion on the Golden State Warriors’ decision to decline a White House invitation to celebrate their championship or the vandalism of Lebron James’ Los Angeles home.
As always, during every camp week, campers are treated to healthy, well-portioned meals by nutritionist and chef, Raheem Islam, who is passionate about conveying healthy eating to the student-athletes. Read more about Raheem’s love of basketball, cooking, and giving back the community in his June Staff Member Spotlight feature.
In July, PYB will transition its Collegiate Summer Camp Series to middle school aged student-athletes. The first week of middle school camps starts on July 10th at St. Joseph’s University, then travels to Temple University from July 17th – 21st, followed by our Drexel University camp week from July 24th – 28th, and finally ending our camp series at Lasalle University July 31st – August 4th. Spots are filling up quickly for all four of those camps so make sure to register and place your deposit as soon as possible in order to reserve a spot. If you would like to sponsor a student-athlete to go to camp for a week you can do so at www.philadelphiayouthbasketball.org/support.
By Harris Edelman, Corporate Intern