Camp 1999 (by Patrick Suessmuth)

"Hey Mom, look what I got..."

"Hey Dad, you'll never guess what I did to-day..."

Talk, talk, talk.  Smile, smile, smile.  Animation, fullness of life, galore.

The Basketball Camp put on by Erin Hoops was AGAIN a success.  Campers went home and excitedly told parents stories day after day.  Yes, the Camp, succeeded in sending proud and happy young people home to tell untall tales of personal exploits.

Erin Hoops Slam Dunk Basketball Camp (week of Aug. 16 to 20) made everyone a winner.

The Campers Won: They had fun.  They learned.  They strained and strived. They're ALL better basketballers.  Many grew to love the game for the first time.

The Parents Won: Their kids had run.  They'd had tons of fun.  The kids were pulsingly alive.  

The Camp Coaches Won: They worked hard.  They played hard.  They learned.  They grew. They learned the joy of giving freely as unpaid volunteers. They gained a greater respect and reverence for basketball.

The Schools Won: Erin youth will play ball so well they will swell the trophy case.

Erin Hoops Won: It more than broke even on this Camp.  A first, even tough the registration fee was the lowest ever at $45 per camper for the week. 

The Town of Erin Won: This is intangible but we know Erin's a better place to live than elsewhere...because its basketball's so great.

The camp had a whole string of features, each will bring back memories to all who participated.  Here are more than a few:

• Jonathan Boone's Duck Walk

• "One the line."

• Drill One -"We beat our time."

• Strawberry Licorice Twist (donated by a "loving" parent) 

• Certificates won and appreciated

• Candies won and eaten (A full shopping bag of wrapped candies rewarded superb accomplishments.)

• 65 lay-ups in a row

• The Bell Raptor Youth League coaches (three of them) came and impressed

• Noise. Noise. Noise.

• "In."

• Diana Humberstones follow the leader tour on Friday.  Kelly Frickers stabalizing, mature influence.  Dunking all week in the old gym

• Sore muscle, hurt ankles and fingers, ice and adhesive tap. Smiling faces

• Trying to win at Bump (What a fun game.)

• Games, up and down the court

• Warm fatigued, flopped on the sidelines

• Giving our best efforts

• Being sportsmen to others

• Helping teammates succeed

• Making the impossible basket

• Deciding basketball IS fun

• Yes, the list goes on...

This camp, the success it was happened because Erin Town is such a great place to live in.  The people, the merchants, the parents, the kids are all so willing to freely help.  Take the ten camp coaches, Michael Gravelle, Diana Humberstone, Lenny Bergeron-Chisholm, Jonathan Boone, Ryan Orr, Brian and Mark Wheeldon, Jennifer MacDonald, Amanda Beedle, and Kelly Fricker, they all gave a week of their time to "romp" and work, and have headaches, and sore muscles, and a sense of a job well done.

Take the local merchants, Dial-A-Show gave eight Video rental certificates for our four Slam Dunk Champions, and four Most Improved Players. Steen's Dairy Ltd. provided coupons for chocolate milk, while Holtom's Bakery's coupons were for butter tarts, these became prizes for improvement in campers' basketball skills. Davids Restaurant on the 17th Sideroad entered the picture too. The Camp Coaches, one and all, "dressed up" and went to Davids for a Friday evening coaches celebratory dinner. We were served, superbly, a sumptuous dinner, salad and a whole cake for Jonathan to cut.  We were treated royally.  Erin's lucky to have such supportive places.

Take the parents who stepped forward and helped make the camp a success. Guest coaches (local parents) were Tim Yawney, Mike Wozniak, Neil Murphy, and Joanne Boone. One parent donated extra money for more candy prizes, another the aforementioned Licorice sticks.  A Vince Carter poster was donated to help a camper overcome a bump in the road.

Take Jonathan Boone, between jobs, gave more than one can put in words. We're all impressed by a mighty fine young man. 

Any good sports' camp, be it baseball, hockey, football or basketball, has tales to tell.  The Erin Hoops Basketball Camp is no exception.

Tale One: The Rebecca Harris Story.  Rebecca was one of the youngest and certainly not the biggest player at this summer's camp.  On Monday, the first day of camp, she made 3 of 20 lay-ups, on Friday, the last day of the camp, she made16 of 20.  A remarkable achievement accomplished because she wanted to play well.  Without this want she would never have reached such an incredible height.  It was the camp miracle.  A feat no one could have predicted of her on the first day of camp.  Rebecca also won the certificate given to the MIP (Most Improved Player) on her team of twelve other campers.  Rebecca, we are all proud of you.  

Yes, that's the Rebecca we can all be so proud of.  (Photo Courtesy Sandra Traversy and The Erin Advocate)

Tale Two: Making of a Camp Theme. Picture this. Your in the gym. Nine kids are running in a new, to them, hook type lay-up. Misses abounded. Never more than two were being made in a row. The coach is frustrated, disgusted is another word. No verbal coaching, encouragement, or howls of anguish is improving the performance. Finally in desperation the coach challenges this group of nine with, "The fIrst five to sink this lay-up in a row will each get a candy." In comes the next shooter. The lay-up's made. So is the next and the next. No one misses. Eight made in a row. The ninth was a gallant try to keep the string alive. Reward time. Everyone gets a candy and the camp theme is born -"It takes a candy to want it."

Tale Three: Various Parents Talk about the camp and their kids experience in it.  One says, "My son will be back next year."  Another says, "The camp rekindled my daughter's love of basketball."  Yet a third says, "My 'Jamie' came home with basketball replacing hockey as his favourite sport."  A parent watching the camp at the end of a day says, "Your coaches are wonderful with the kids."  Then there's parents whose actions spoke louder than word about the effect of the camp on their kids.  Here comes a poster for a prize.  There comes dollars for more candies.  Oh, oh, here's a container of licorice twisters.  Then there's even a bottle of wine for a coach.  Support.  Support.  Support.  It sure was some camp for everyone.

Tale Four: Hoops' improves.  Year over year, kid over kid this year's camp was better than last year.  We have the statistics to prove it.  See the table with this article.  Look hard. It's self explainatory.  Year over year our kids get better .

Tale Five: Last year (98) 31 kids at the camp.  This year (99) 47.  Next year???

Reprinted from The Advocate, Aug. 25, Sept. 1, 1999, Vol. 122, No. 35 & 34, pages 11 & 15 respectively.