While most of my peers spent their summers running off to summer camp where they splashed in lakes, canoed down rivers, were suspended high above the sky trying to complete a ropes course, or dodged arrows down the by-rec barn, I chose to take a slightly different path. Instead of having fun in the sun, I apparently wanted to run till I felt like I could collapse and die. Or dribble a ball up and down a court until a whistle that never quite seemed to come soon enough blew. You may be wondering what I could be talking about, and the answer to that is basketball camp.
Yes, instead of easy and fun, I chose hard and sometimes wanting to go to my cabin and cry. But I don’t regret it for a second. Why? Because it helped me not only become the best athlete I could be but it also helped instill in me a strong work ethic and character that I have carried with me throughout my life.
Now you might be thinking, how does one little thing like basketball camp make such an impact in the world? And it’s an understandable question. After all, a typical camp only lasts about one week, and you only go once or twice a year. While this is true, in those couple weeks, I was taught skills and techniques and learned lessons that have stayed with me for a lifetime.
If I’m being honest, I can’t take any credit as to why I grew so much over those summer weeks. I just ran, sweated, and ate. It was my coaches and fellow teammates that made all the difference for me. Not only did my coaches all have a professional career at one point in their lives, but they also had a heart for their campers. They truly wanted to see us succeed and become better every single day we stepped out onto that court. My coaches were the ones who pushed me, encouraged me, often yelled at me, but cheered for me the loudest. They had my back not just when I was at camp, but they made themselves available to me and my fellow teammates year-round. They are the main reason for my success in my basketball career.
The others I need to attribute to where I am are my teammates. They ran right alongside me every day we were at camp. We ran the same drills, benched the same weights, opened up to each other in our breakout sessions, and helped teach each other what it meant to be a part of a team. Without my fellow players standing alongside me every week of every summer, I wouldn’t be the athlete I am today.
So, when people ask why I chose something hard like basketball camp instead of a fun summer camp, I always say because I wanted to be the best. I was willing to sacrifice fun for the varsity spot on the high school team, the basketball scholarship to college, and the lifetime lessons I learned to be a better athlete and human being. I chose to go to basketball camp because I knew I didn’t want to be average. I wanted to be the best I could be.
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