2003 SHOTMAN Basketball Camp Extravaganza Another Success
A few weeks ago, the SHOTMAN Basketball Camps and Clinics held its 12th Annual Summer Basketball Camp Extravaganza at South Plainfield High School. While there was a lower turnout than in the previous two summers, the camp was much more manageable, and still a lot of fun for the kids and coaches.
From July 28th to August 1st, 2003, approximately 75 kids from around New Jersey, and even as far as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania attended the camp at SPHS, and learned lots of basketball fundamentals and drills from Mike Lanza and his team of coaches. "Our camp is geared for the players of tomorrow," said Lanza. "The intention of this camp was to drill the kids like European players because they're NBA players who demonstrate the best fundamentals out there today."
The 75 kids were grouped into several age groups: 10 And Under, 11 and 12 Year Olds, and 13 And Under. Plenty of prizes were given out by not only the SHOTMAN and his team, but also by Rich Navarez from C.R.O.N.S. (Come Ready Or Never Start), who also designed this year's SHOTMAN Basketball Camp T-Shirts. SHOTMAN also continued the tradition of having a guest speaker. Daryl "D-TRAIN" Smith, a basketball player at Rutgers University from 1989 to 1992, served as this year's guest speaker.
Smith is currently a personal trainer for South Plainfield Tigers point guard, Corey Gilmore as well as a number of other high school. college, and professional players from around the area. In addition, to the special guests, SHOTMAN had a staff that consisted of South Plainfield Varsity Basketball Head Coach, Jeff Lubreski, Sean Mealey, Aaron Parks, Taryn Decker, and John Greco.
"The kids came ready to play," said South Plainfield Head Coach, Jeff Lubreski. One person in particular that came to play was Jimmy Ponce, a 15 year old from Philadelphia Pennsylvania, who received a special award for making the long trip up to South Plainfield for the week.
Other Award Winners were as follows: 13 And Under--Buzzer Beater-Scott Barton, Dribble And Shoot-Kyle Walters, Hustle Award-Robbie Hoffman, Foul Shot and X-Out-Matt Jeglinski. The Star of Stars, or Most Outstanding Camper Award went to Kyle Walters for the Boys while Erica Blaszak earned it for the Girls.
11 And 12 Year Olds--Buzzer Beater-Josh Solomon, Dribble And Shoot-Justin Schwartz, Hustle Award-Bissy Martin, Foul Shot-Josh Solomon, X-Out-Jayson Bolton. For the 10 And Under Group: Buzzer Beater-Briana Nolan, Foul Shot-Mitchell Doran, Dribble And Shoot-Ryan Hughes, X-Out-Patrick Boyle, Knockout-Austin Jenkin, and the Hustle Award went to Holly Polakiewicz.
Special thanks goes to Mike Buggey, the Athletic Director at South Plainfield High School for allowing SHOTMAN Basketball Camps and Clinics to utilize the facilities at both the High School and the Middle School, Jeff Lubreski and the rest of the coaching staff for their help and expertise, and Greg Machos for designing the certificates for the kids as well as helping out with advertising the camp, providing the guest speaker, and re-designing the new SHOTMAN site at http://www.shotman.net
