Campers get a dose of basketball fundamentals at Brooksville camp

BROOKSVILLE — Generations differ in many ways. The same coaches who are teaching today's youths basketball were raised idolizing Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

Mike Bennett, the instructor of the Brooksville Department of Recreation's youth basketball camp, invoked players such as Le- Bron James and Kobe Bryant to grab the attention of the kids under his tutelage last week at the Jerome Brown Community Center in Brooksville.

The mission for Bennett was to teach these multi-aged children the basics of the game while still allowing them to have fun during the four-hour camp.

"I told the kids that fundamentals are so important, and you can't just score all the time," Bennett said. "I talked about how many times LeBron will score a ton of points, and the (Cleveland) Cavs will still lose the game."

While the original inspiration for the camp was well-conceived, things went haywire only weeks before the began. Former Hernando basketball coach and athletic director Marion Jones was to head up the camp at its inception. Jones, however, pulled out due to prior commitments and Brooksville Recreation was left scrambling for a replacement.

That's when department head Mike Walker contacted Bennett. Telling him that recreation employee Tina Nichols would assist with the organization of the camp, Walker asked Bennett, the director of Hernando Youth League basketball, to instruct the eight kids signed up for the sessions.

The number of kids to attend the camp ended up doubling to 16, and Nichols had to deal with some medical issues and was unable to assist Bennett. Even with all of these speed bumps, the camp couldn't have gone better, according to the man in charge.

With the assistance of his son, Matt, a varsity basketball player for Central High, the first-time instructor was surprised with the progress the kids were able to make. Matt has picked up a lot along the way, and coupled with the coaching he has had under Bears coach Eric Hayes, he was able to lead the younger campers during the four-day course.

"Sometimes I help some younger kids at (Tom Varn Park) when we play there, so I used a lot of that experience when I was working with these kids," Matt said. "My dad worked with the older kids, and I worked with the younger ones. We ended up doing a lot of dribbling drills."

A 6-year-old camper, Tallia Russell, stood out to Mike. Russell couldn't even dribble the ball at the start of the camp, but by the end of the week, she was participating in every drill.

"I remember Tallia," Matt said. "She ended up being a great dribbler with a decent jump shot. She was one of those kids that always was the first one in line when something was about to start."

Five years from now, one camper, 10-year-old Trey Johnson, might turn some heads. Mike Bennett, who took control of the 9- to 13-year-olds, was amazed at how good Johnson was coming into the camp. By the end, Johnson was working on his crossover dribbling and pinpoint passing.

According to Mike Bennett, he didn't know what to expect from the camp, but he was more than pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

"You're never sure what to expect when you lump a bunch of kids from different age groups together like that," Mike Bennett said. "After having all the fun I did, I'd love to do it again next year if the opportunity came along."

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