David Crochet
July 14, 2009
Houma house fire kills 4 pets
July 16, 2009“Passion. Purpose. Pride.” Not only is that the motto for the New Orleans Hornets 2009-2010 basketball season, it’s the theme this year at all 10 of the New Orleans Hornets Summer Hoops Clinics.
According to the camp director, Xavier of New Orleans head basketball coach Dannton Jackson, the camp helps children get a passion for what they love, a purpose to what they are doing and helps them take pride in what they are doing.
“It stresses those three things,” the director said. “We start off by stretching. Then we go into the basic fundamentals of basketball. We’ll play some games before the end of camp to emphasize what we taught them.”
Designed for children between the ages of 7 and 14, the camp made a stop at Nicholls’ Stopher Gymnasium for its third camp of 10 throughout July.
Nearly 250 local campers attended the Thibodaux camp to learn various fundamentals of basketball as well as the importance of reading.
Jackson credits the success of the camp, now in its eighth year, to the one-on-one teaching each camper gets, and the level at which the coaches work with the campers.
“The younger campers are taught on a different level than our older ones,” he said. “They each have different skill sets. We teach them at their level with a lot of one-on-one coaching. That’s what makes this so successful is it’s a lot of individual coaching here.”
Ten-year-old Jacob Toups of Thibodaux said he was most excited about the chance to attend a camp actually put on by the Hornets.
When the three-hour camp wrapped up, the young camper had already learned new aspects of basketball he didn’t know before.
“I learned that when we shoot a free throw, the ball is not supposed to touch your palm,” Toups said. “It was fantastic.”
Eli Lasseigne, the 11-year-old son of E.D. White head football coach Kyle Lasseigne, said the best part of the camp was watching Super Hugo and the French Quarter Flyers perform acrobatic dunks with the help of trampolines.
The group, regularly seen at halftime and timeout breaks at every Hornets home game, entertained their young audience and their parents at the conclusion of the camp.
“I think everyone had fun, we all learned a lot,” he said. “But the Flyers were the best part. It was really cool seeing them do all the tricks.”
Hornets starting guard Rasaul Butler was supposed to be leading the camp, but was unable to make the trip due to flight complications in Miami where he attended Alonzo Mourning’s Celebrity Basketball game over the weekend.
Not having the Hornets star in attendance, however, did not deter the spirits of the young campers.
“This was awesome,” said 9-year-old Shawn Preston of Thibodaux. “I liked how they taught us how to shoot. I definitely want to come back.”
Even though basketball is the main focus of the camp, it also encourages the participants to read. In cooperation with the National Basketball Association, the Hornets take part in the Read to Achieve program.
As part of the program, all 250 campers received free books to take home and read.
“Reading is fundamental just like basketball,” Jackson told the campers. “Every time you read, I want all of you to think about how much fun you had here. And just how much fun reading can be.”
To accommodate for Butler’s absence, all campers are going to receive an autographed T-shirt from Butler in the mail.
