The annual “Share the Rock” Basketball Camp took place last week and taught the participants about basketball and more.
“This is our fourth year to do ‘Share the Rock,’” said camp director Derek Dantin, the pastor at Oak Grove Baptist Church. “It is really multi-purpose. We share the gospel with the kids in the morning. Share the Rock is kind of a play on words there because we’re talking about basketball and we’re talking about Jesus, and that’s what we want to do.
“We want to teach them about both, so we share the gospel with them in the morning, we do basketball throughout the day as far as skill development, and then also, we do competitions, which is very important and the kids love that part of it, and then in the afternoons, we have a community leader come and speak to them.”
Bogalusa Mayor Wendy Perrette spoke to the campers on Monday and Washington Parish Sherriff Randy Seal talked to the participants on Tuesday.
Dantin, who is also Ben’s Ford Christian School’s athletic director and an assistant girls basketball coach, said the speakers talked to the campers about life and being successful in life.
The competitions include free throws, “hot shot” and “bump.”
In hot shot, competitors are given a certain amount of time to make as many buckets as they can, as different areas on the floor count for different amount of points.
Bump is a game where you want to make a bucket as quickly as possible. The first person shoots and if the second person makes a shot before the first person, the first person is out. The game goes on until there is one left.
“It’s probably the kids’ favorite part of the camp,” Dantin said.
There are also three stations that include shooting, ball handling and defense, and rebounding.
This year’s clinic had 25 participants, ages 10 to 14.
In addition to Dantin, the rest of the staff included William Pitcher Junior High school athletic director, head football coach and junior varsity boys basketball coach Aaron Thomas and Ben’s Ford boys basketball coach Landon Tims.
Also, members of Ben’s Ford girls basketball team helped with the clinic.