The Kent Crusaders Basketball Club held a successful basketball camp at Simon Langton Boys School from the 18^th to the 22^nd of August. The camp included 50 players aged 8 to 16 and coaches from the successful Crusaders National League program.

For three hours a day the players worked on improving their basketball skills, fitness and teamwork. Camp director Ross Kelk aimed to give the children a mix of seriousness and fun: “We had a very varied age group, and while we wanted to make sure that while the children had a lot of fun, they should also leave us with improved basketball skills. We especially wanted the older group, many of who play for the Crusaders National League under 14 and 16 teams to learn from the good coaches at the camp”.

The coaches included Crusaders Basketball Academy head coach Damian Lyons, Sam Betts of SPB Coaching and Crusaders Men’s coach Mads Olesen. The campers were divides into three age groups and the coaches took turns teaching skills to each group. Apart from the more serious skills work the campers also participated in fun contests, relays and games.

At the end of the camp the All Stars of the age groups got a chance to play the coaches in a short All Star basketball game, after which the camp awards were handed out. The Sportsmanship Award went to Keelan Rogers for his hard but fair play over the week, while Kyle Vincett got the Most Valuable Player award, partly for his on the court play, and partly for him helping out his teammates all week. The Coaches Award went to 8 year old Katherine Jones, the youngest player on the camp.

All the children got their own ball, t-shirt and tickets for the Kent Crusaders Patrons Cup games in September.