Basketball Camp '07

Every year when I come home for Christmas I coach a basketball camp at my old home church here in Sacramento. The camp is usually 2 or 3 days where 100 or so kids come in and we teach them the fundamentals of basketball and just have a great time. My favorite part is that a lot of the same kids come back year after year... and year after year I get to tell them about how amazing Jesus is because of what he has done for them. This is Meagan... who has come for the last 4 years... I think... it seems like I've known here forever now.

This year the group was quite a bit smaller because there was another basketball camp going on at a nearby church... which honestly didn't bother me at all because it allows more time to be spent with the kids individually. The camp is usually about 50-60 kids ages 6-9 for three hours in the morning and then another 40-50 kids ages 10-13 for four hours in the afternoon. This year we had about 20-25 in each group which worked out great.

The other great thing about these couple of days of basketball camp is that I get to spend time with a lot of the kids from the youth group at the church... kids I have known since they were born and even got to coach when I was in high school. It's a real blessing to have them help me out... to see the kinds of young men and women they have become. They are great young people and I couldn't do the camp without them.

The funny thing is seeing the kids grow up... many of them that are my helpers now were only 5 or 6 years old when I started coaching these camps 10 years ago. Many of the kids playing in the camp were little baby brothers of children I knew and are now old enough to play. All in all these two days of spending time with these children are some of my favorite days of the year.