‘Something for the boys’

Rising Stars boys’ camp gaining popularity

FARMINGTON

When Trent Salabye attended the first Rising Stars boys basketball camp he could barely dribble a basketball.

Now, after attending the camp for four years, he showed up last week a confident basketball player.

“I’ve moved here from being the worst ball handler to almost part of the varsity starting five at my school,” Salabye said. “I’m trying to use this (camp) as much as I can to get myself pushed up to where I can help lead my team to a state championship.”

Salabye, an incoming senior at Many Farms High School, has attended the camp, held at Navajo Preparatory School, since it started in 2014.

He and 24 other campers participated in the nearly five-day camp last week, where campers got to experience dorm life, one-on-one basketball instruction, and seminars.

Rainy Crisp, camp coordinator, said it was the highest number of participants the boys camp has seen.

“We want to try to get 35, that’s our max, but every year it’s growing,” she said. “We have a few campers that are repeaters and of course we have our new ones as well, so it’s going good.”

Salabye is one of the few veteran campers. For the past three years he’s made the trip to Farmington.

He said he’s gained a lot from attending the camp.

“It was fun the first time so I kept coming,” he said. “The coaches, they really know what they’re doing and I learn a lot from them. It’s a lot more fun than staying home and trying to practice with yourself when you really don’t know how to do the fundamentals.”

Campers checked in last Tuesday and camp officially started on Wednesday. They dove right into two camp instructions on the first day and into a seminar about what high school coaches look for in athletes.

The camp also featured a seminar on the importance of summer workouts and one where camp instructors shared their personal experience as students and professional athletes.
Crisp said the camp was organized with a holistic approach in mind, starting with the basics of the game.

“A lot of it is just basic fundamentals. We have campers that come in high school level, just perfecting those skills, but also challenging them to do more,” she said. “For those in grades six to eight, just basic fundamentals, shooting form, ball handling … It’s really just an all-around to make them an all-around athlete.”

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