Speraw camps start again

The 2009 Kirk Speraw Basketball Camp is here and running this summer.

The camp, the first week of which completed Friday, is hosted, of course, by UCF Men's Basketball head coach Kirk Speraw.

"We have been running this camp since I got here 16 years ago," Speraw said, "and we have a lot of fun with the kids in the community, coming up and try to have a great day teaching the fundamentals of the game: passing, dribbling, defense, rebounding, shooting, and mixing it in with some nice competition."

Speraw said the camps give the program an opportunity to reach out to the areas around UCF and get people interested in the Knights.

"It's interacting with the community, and we want to promote the game of basketball," Speraw said. "We want to promote UCF and the university, and we want to promote our basketball program. It's a great way for kids in the community to get to know the coaching staff and our players. We do have a number of former players, and a number of current players that are working at the camp."

A couple of familiar names were on hand to help. Josh Peppers and Kingsley Edwards, who were part of UCF's 2004 and 2005 NCAA Tournament teams, were counselors.

According to the camp's brochure, other former Knights involved are Jermaine Taylor and Dexter Lyons.

"We always get some guys to come back," Speraw said. "It's fun to bring those guys back. You spend so many hours in a day when they're here it's great to watch them grow and mature and go on with their lives. It's fun to catch up with what's going on with them. It's nice for them to stay attached to the university."

There are two different types of camps. The day camp has three sessions, the first of which just completed. The remaining sessions are today through June 19 and June 22-26.
The sessions are Monday thru Friday and run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The camp is open to campers from the ages of 7 to 17.

The camp fee is $195 and includes a basketball for each kid, a camp T-shirt and a daily lunch.

The day camp will experience 3-on-3 and 5-on-5 competition. They train to improve upon their fundamental skills such as passing, ball handling, layups, shooting, rebounding, agility, and defense.

The other type of camp is the team camp.

It is held from July 10-12 and allows for teams to play together.

The team camp allows high school and AAU teams compete with other Florida schools and the Southeast.

The team fee is $575 per team and $500 for additional teams. Each team is responsible for its own accommodations and meal arrangements.

To register for either camp each participant needs to fill out the application in the pamphlet along with the required payment.

For the team camp, each player needs to send $100 deposit with their application form.