May 21, 2012
By Matt Winkeljohn
Sting Daily
Brian Gregory and the boys are getting ready to go camping, and everybody is going to get some training when they go . . . coaches included.
The first of the Georgia Tech men’s basketball coach’s summer camps is less than two weeks away, and he’s tuning up. So are his staffers, some local high school coaches, college players from other schools and – of course – all the boys who plan to camp.
Last summer, Lance Storrs and Moe Miller were among the instructors less than three months after the former Jackets wrapped up their college eligibility. Who knows? Maybe they’ll end up in coaching one day. These camps are not just to teach kids what’s what.
“Every guy on my staff started in the profession working at camps,” Gregory said. “All our coaches are involved. The great thing about our camps is the daily skills that we teach and show in camp are the same things we work on with our guys [at Tech].
“We over-staff our camps to make sure that a coach doesn’t have 20 players. We want 10, or nine or eight. The players get a lot of instruction and attention.”
Gregory said he’s seen a trend over the years to where there are fewer camps for players who might be considered to already be legitimate college prospects. There are exceptions. Tech stages a team camp on June 16-17 for full high school squads although that one’s already full.
For the most part, “I think that institutional camps are geared more now toward the younger players because the older players are so active in their high school teams and with their AAU teams that the daily instruction that you get in camp sometimes gets pushed to the side,” Gregory said.
“To me, it’s a little bit of a shame. But I do think now these camps are really teaching camps. The guys get to play games and so forth, but the games become secondary to the individual instruction.”
Tech’s day camps, for boys ages 8-16, will be June 4-7, June 18-21, and June 25-28 – four days each. No overnights.
“It’s not only great for Georgia Tech basketball because it gives kids and their families a glimpse of Georgia Tech basketball and … in the bigger picture you get a lot of potential Georgia Tech students on campus,” Gregory said. “It’s an opportunity for them to get a great feel for Georgia Tech. It’s positive on a lot of fronts.”
Information and registration for Tech basketball camp can be found here.
Applications are due soon and based on the number of available spots.
