Little Eagles can develop skills at basketball camp

Inside the spacious North Point High School gymnasium each week through most of July, the sounds of numerous boys and girls participating in the 19th annual Little Eagles Basketball Camp provides an audible reminder to past and present campers about the intrinsic value of the entire experience.

North Point High School boys basketball coach Jimmy Ball has been overseeing the Charles County Parks and Recreation Little Eagles camp since the school opened nearly 20 years ago. Now, several of his former campers and North Point graduates, including his son, have returned to share the coaching wisdom they received a decade earlier.

“It’s hard to believe this my 30th year of doing this,” North Point coach Jimmy Ball said, noting that his first 11 years were at Westlake High School. “This camp is all about teaching the fundamentals. It’s also allowed kids that had never met before to become friends. I’m proud that several of my former campers and former players have come back to help coach.”

Satchel Ball, a recent Shippensburg University graduate who plans to join the North Point boys basketball coaching staff this winter, was eager to join his father at the camp this summer. Satchel Ball took part in the camps when he was in his youth and then later played for North Point where his father has been the coach since the school opened.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to come back here and teach a lot of these kids a lot of the things that I learned from my father,” Satchel Ball said. “It’s important for these kids to have someone that they can look up to for coaching and for teaching. It’s a long day for these kids and I’m sure by the end of the week they’re very tired.”

Like Ball, North Point graduate Andre Brooks, who recently transferred from the University of Pennsylvania-California to Stevenson University, was glad to be part of the coaching staff this summer after spending countless days in the gym as a player.

“Seeing all these young kids learning the game reminds me of when I was here as a kid,” Brooks said. “At the start of the week they might not display too many skills. But by the end of the week they’ve improved a lot, and a lot of it is because of what we’ve taught them. It’s very rewarding to see them make that much progress in one week.”