Students did shooting drills during the five-day basketball camp at Marlboro Academy.
Photo by Hannah Burroughs
A five-day summer basketball camp started Monday at Marlboro Academy.
Camp registration was open to all the school’s rising fifth through twelfth graders.
The camp was made possible due to the benevolence of Travis Conner and his connection with Sandhills Community College’s athletics. Conner has two daughters, one recently graduated from Marlboro Academy and the other is currently enrolled.
For 25 years, Conner was an athletic director and a head football coach in North Carolina. During these years, he was part of Mike Apple’s hiring process. Apple was hired to be the boys’ basketball Head Coach and to be an Assistant Football Coach to Conner.
While working together over the years, the two men became close friends. Now, years later, Apple is the men’s basketball Head Coach and the Athletic Director at Sandhills Community College.
Because of Apple’s success at Sandhills, Conner approached Apple about bringing his staff and some players out to the school to lead this camp. Sandhills Community College’s basketball team has won two junior college national championships and has participated in two others.
Two of Apple’s Assistant Coaches, Tramaine Pride and Markell Lotharp, led the camp with the help of several of their basketball players.
Apple was Pride’s coach when he was an athlete. Pride explained that the camp’s purpose is to teach the game to a school that is “thirsty to learn.”
Therefore, the instructional style was “very old school,” with “a lot of drills.”
Students learned basketball fundamentals all week such as ball handling, dribbling, passing, and shooting. This camp is Sandhills’ way of helping the community by planting the seed by a college championship team.
The camp is being overseen by Marlboro Academy’s Sam Baker, Head Junior Varsity Coach and Assistant Varsity Coach to the girls’ and boys’ basketball teams.
Sandhills will hold its own basketball camp beginning on Monday, June 20.
Registration is open to any rising third through ninth graders. The camp costs $65 per student and will run Monday through Thursday, 8:30am-Noon.
Registration forms and additional information are available on the Sandhills Community College website.