Former WNBA player gives back with free basketball camps

SHIPROCK, N.M.

Every afternoon, Ryneldi Becenti would play a few pick-up games at the Diné College gymnasium in Shiprock, and just as she made her way out of the facility, she’d take one last look at the empty gym she left every evening around 5 o’clock.

The gym stayed open until 7 p.m., which is why Becenti never understood why it was empty.

“I never saw kids in there,” she said. “We got done at five and there was nobody in the gym.”

At the beginning of March she decided to change that. She approached an administrator at the college and asked if she could hold a free camp.

The official agreed and now holds the “Skillz Camp,” a free camp for young athletes ages three to seniors in high school.

Becenti said it made sense for her to utilize the facility for something she already enjoys doing.

“I really have nothing to do and it’s my free time, and its something I should do,” she said. “I just want to make a footprint in some kid’s life. I really want kids to come back and say, ‘I got it down, I learned it, I’m getting better,’ – that makes me happy them just trying.

“I tell them, ‘Effort is all I want from you …’” she said.

It’s been about a month since Becenti held her first camp, and just last week dozens more arrived for their chance to learn from the best.

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