KFC Star search Basketball Camp launched at G C Foster College
The KFC Star Search Basketball and Life Skills Development Camp 2019 was launched ate G C Foster College Monday afternoon.
The annual camp is a major initiative of the Jamaica Basketball Association (JABA), which will serve the dual purpose of unearthing local talent as well as providing necessary life skills for 25 girls and 85 boys this year.
The camp began on Sunday, with the official opening ceremony taking place on the basketball courts at G C Foster College the following day. The camp will conclude tomorrow with a series of competitive games and a closing ceremony scheduled to begin at 1:00 pm.
Some of the campers were selected from the high school leagues, while others paid to attend to improve their skills and put themselves in a position to earn scholarships. They will be housed at the G C Foster College for the duration of the camp.
Andrei Roper, brand manager at title sponsors, KFC, outlined his company’s continued commitment to the sport of basketball and youth development on a whole throughout the camp.
“KFC has been the title sponsor for Star Search Camp for more than 15 years. We believe in youth development through basketball; it’s not just a basketball camp, it’s a life skills camp. We believe that having all the tools that the sport of basketball offers can impact the young men and women, helping them to become more well-rounded contributors to the society.
“We have been sponsoring basketball at all levels but this camp is important because every year we are able to bring together the top basketball talent at the youth level and offer scholarships to those really outstanding players, so it’s a good opportunity for us to give back and to give our
youngsters a platform to really develop themselves through basketball.”
National Head Coach Rick Turner urged the campers to work hard not just at the camp but after the camp has ended as well.
“You don’t just show up for six days of basketball camp and expect to be great; you take the other 359 days of the year and put the work in individually in order to get not just yourself to where you want to go, but to get us to where we want to go, to get Jamaica to where it wants to go.”
He hoped that the lessons learned by the players at the camp would be carried over in the weeks and months to come.
“It’s not just you, it’s all of us. It takes hard work every single day in order to do it. What we are here to do is to give you tools that you can leave here with on Saturday and Sunday, that you can take those home…take it to your local basketball courts and get out and work and the skills that we are giving you here this week will hopefully allow you to do that.
“Basketball is bigger than just the game, we have talked about the life skills that are built, it’s about creating relationships and that’s what basketball has given me and I hope it gives you the same.”
President of JABA, Paulton Gordon, was happy to be at G C Foster for the camp once again.
“This is the ideal facility for the Star Search Camp. It has the requisite courts, it also has the dorms. The campers look forward to coming here every year,” he said.
Gordon highlighted the need for programmes such as Star Search Camp.
“As you know, what we have been trying to do over the last couple of years is to focus on the grassroots and development of basketball. Without a solid base we would not achieve much and that’s why we have a programme that is supportive of the young people. Without the base and fundamentals we can’t go very far.”
He also thanked title sponsors KFC for their continued support of the programme.
“We want to thank our big title sponsor KFC. Without KFC I can assure you most of you would be sitting at home today, we want to congratulate KFC for sticking with it.”
A number of camp participants have earned scholarships overseas after participating at the yearly camp.