The 2010 Basketball Camp,  filled the Parish Hall and the parking lot June 21-24.  It preceded the city-wide Hoopfest weekend and provided professional training to eager children ages 5-12, for a minimal fee.  The camp is open to all children regardless of race, religion, and gender. The fee includes coaching, a free basketball for each child, a free T-shirt, and camp photograph. It is around half the cost of commercial sports camps in the area, making this event affordable to most families. Scholarships are given to children in need.

It was a special 4 days for 126 children! We thank the many dedicated volunteers from St. Stephen’s and the community.  It could not have happened without you.

Faith and Basketball:

We teach basketball skills such as dribbling and shooting baskets, but, we also want to teach children life skills such as sportsmanship, teamwork, and a healthy lifestyle.

Camp Founder Bernie Loposer describes our camp this way:

“We do teach kids how to handle a basketball, and we teach them the fundamentals of the game. But we think that a very important part of learning to play a sport is learning values. So we focus on the values of good sportsmanship, teamwork, and the principles of healthy competition. We have contests, but we do not keep score, because we don’t want them to play to win. We want them to play to learn, to have fun, to learn how to play as a team. That is really gratifying to us.”

If you stop Bernie at the church and ask him about his experience of previous camps, you can see his eyes light up, and a wide smile sweeps across his face.

“Teaching the young children how to dribble a basketball is like teaching them to have faith,” he says, “faith that when they push the ball down to the floor of the court, it’s going to come back up. Until they learn that, they reach their hands all the way to the floor to try to catch the ball. But then the ball bounces back up, and it’s fun. When the 5-year-olds are first learning how to shoot, they shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot and the ball doesn’t go into the basket. When it does go in, it’s as if someone turned on the big light of the sun, and it shows on their faces. I get so excited because the kids get so excited.”

The camp is a community service to children in the neighborhood as well as our parish children. We are excited that our church can offer such a service to the children of Spokane.

St. Stephen’s parish members – both youth and adults – help with food preparation, restroom escort, first aid, monitoring, and other important duties.  Basketball hoops were donated by various parish members and groups, making our Basketball Camp a permanent fixture of St. Stephen’s and the neighborhood around us.

Basketball Camp began in 2001 and has steadily grown. In its first year, the camp was host to 50 children; and has since grown to more than 3 times that many children.  The Basketball Camp is divided into two separate camps, meeting nearly concurrently. One camp is for younger children, the other for the older youth.

Our Coach
Coach (Mark) Rickard has devoted his career to teaching and coaching kids through sport. As a PE teacher, Head Varsity Women’s Basketball Coach, Varsity and Middle School Softball Coach at St. George’s School; he has made a reputation for himself as a dedicated, hardworking, successful champion of student athletes. On the basketball court Mark was a standout at Republic High School, his senior year he was the all time leader in total points, rebounds
in a career, and free-throw percentage for Republic. In Coach Rickard’s own words, ”Ultimately coaching and working with kids is my passion. Beside my wonderful wife and 3 beautiful children, nothing brings me more joy than to see the excitement and enthusiasm of student athletes on the court or on the field. Through that excitement and enthusiasm for the game, I hope to cultivate a positive competitive spirit in kids and not only develop better athletes, but also better people in the process.”

Registration
Registration for the camp begins in April.  Registration forms are sent to all children who have participated in the past.  Forms are also available at the church office beginning in April for newcomers.  Slots fill up fast, so early registration is highly recommended.

Contact
For more information about the St. Stephen’s Basketball Camp please email ststephensbasketball@gmail.com or all the church office at 448-2255.

Basketball Camp 2009

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BASKETBALL CAMP – 2008

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