Young kids take over the Pete

Come ready, or never start.

That’s the motto of the 2004 Jamie Dixon Basketball Camp, which… Come ready, or never start.

That’s the motto of the 2004 Jamie Dixon Basketball Camp, which started on Monday and will run every day until Friday. Kids from all over flocked to the Petersen Events Center for the annual camp. One, 14-year-old Leonard Brown, flew in from Orlando, Fla. to attend his fourth camp with the Panthers.

“It’s a nice turnout,” former Pitt Panther Jarrett Lockhart said. Lockhart was a guard for Pitt from 1996 to 2000 and has since played in France. He has a good relationship with Dixon and jumped at the opportunity to come back and work at the camp.

“I think it’s good for the kids, just to come out and experience this,” Lockhart said. “Especially since it’s with a big-time program.”

The camp is designed to teach the kids the fundamentals of the game of basketball. With the participants coming from all over America, there is an opportunity for kids to interact with others who may play the game differently.

“It gives them a chance to see different types of people [and] different types of game,” said Eugene Wilson, a former two-guard from Pitt at Johnstown. Wilson graduated in 2003 and is currently teaching high school.

“[The camp] gives the kids a chance to not only play basketball, but also learn the fundamentals and technical part of the game itself,” Wilson said.

Dixon, Pitt’s head coach, believes that there is always something the kids can find to improve their game.

“If you gain a little bit out of this camp, then it’s definitely worthwhile,” Dixon said.

The second day of camp started out at the Pete with a set of exercises and stretches led by former Robert Morris shooting guard Ricky Richburg, who is now a supervisor at Ebsco Telemarketing. He used to attend basketball camps like Dixon’s when he was younger.

“This is like a sequel to me, right now,” Richburg said.

After the exercises, the kids, wearing their brand new Air Jordans and Nike Shox, broke into six teams: The Los Angeles Clippers, Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks and, of course, the NBA champion Detroit Pistons.

As teams, they took turns going around the Pete’s hard court to different stations. One station was designed to improve participants’ passing skills. Another was set for three-point shooting and another for rebounding. Other stations were set up to train the young players to dribble and shoot quickly after receiving a pass.

The three-point station was set up more like a contest, and losers were punished. A penalty of 10 pushups was handed out to anyone who missed. One of the most unlikely winners, who avoided doing push-ups, was John Herbick, a 5-foot-3 14-year-old from Johnstown, Pa. He nailed three-pointers left and right to send all his opponents to the bench.

“It’s really fun,” Herbick said. “[The camp] is helping me play with different kids.”

Different, as in kids who are much taller than he is, but that is what this camp is about. Kids challenging themselves against those who might have more skill or better physical attributes than them, as Tyler Fondrk, a 13-year-old from Jeannette, Pa., believes.

“It’s a challenge because a lot of the players come from a better background,” Fondrk said.

After all the teams practiced at every station, they went to practice with their coaches and prepare themselves for a scrimmage before lunch. The teams are ultimately preparing for a tournament at the end of the week.

After lunch, all the kids came out and sat around the three-point line listening to Dixon teach them the skills of shooting. Dixon talked about how positioning of the feet is just as important as positioning of the hands when it comes to shooting the basketball. He also talked about the arc of a shot, and how more arc is better if you find your shots coming up short.

The students watched players shoot as Dixon described their every move. After the demonstration, Dixon allowed the kids to ask any question they wanted. One kid asked how long Lockhart been playing basketball.

Lockhart said he had been playing since he was little.

Dixon followed up by saying, “My son is 2. I’m going to start him next week.”

After the lesson given by Dixon, the kids split up into their teams and began scrimmaging again, but this time with the help of Jaron Brown, Julius Page and Chevon Troutman. Brown has graduated from Pitt, but a chance to help kids learn the game is something he would never pass up.

Also roaming around the Pete are the new Pitt Panthers, Ronald Ramon, Keith Benjamin and John DeGroat. They observed from the sidelines because NCAA rules do not allow them to start doing anything with the team until the fall.

During the breaks, the kids grabbed their Panther hats and shirts and got them signed by the players in attendance. Even Richburg, who never played for the Panthers, was bombarded by kids holding hats in one hand and a black marker in the other.

Whether they walk away with just an autograph or with a better hook shot, the Jamie Dixon Basketball Camp is definitely worth its while.