WS Chronicle

This week, Carolina Christian College offered a basketball camp to area youth for skill development. The weeklong camp is designed to introduce the game to some, while also giving advanced players a leg up for next season.

The camp is run by Centurion men’s head coach and athletic director, Jamie Foster. With the basketball program only three years old, Foster wanted to offer the camp as a means to not only develop players, but to also bring awareness to his program.

“I just wanted to give something back to the community and try to get the name of Carolina Christian College out there,” said Foster. “I am trying to reach the youth and I think it is a good idea for them to be in the gym and not out getting themselves in trouble.”

According to Foster, since many of the kids in the camp will be young, they will focus on the fundamentals of the game, such as dribbling and passing.

“My main goal is to improve each and every one of them by Friday,” he said. “If they can learn how to dribble better, shoot better and pass better, I will be happy. We have several kids that are four, five and six, so we just want them to improve by teaching them the basic skills of basketball.”

Carolina Christian College has been around since 1945, but the basketball program is still in its infancy. “We focus on second chance guys or players that never got looked at, but are good enough to play college basketball,” Foster went on to say. “We want kids who can do what needs to be done in the classroom and on the court.

“I am just a guy that likes working with the kids. I am a second chance coach, so I want to give guys a chance to enjoy the sport they love while going to college.”

Foster played college basketball and has been coaching for 21 years. During his two decades of coaching, he has worked with young men and women from high school, all the way to the college level.

“I just like to see my kids graduate from college first and foremost,” Foster said of his enjoyment of coaching college basketball. “I just want to be somebody that makes a difference in their lives. If I can make a difference in one or two of their lives each year, then I feel like I have done a good job.”

Foster plans to offer this camp each year for the kids of the area. He wants area youth to know they have another option to play basketball on the next level at Carolina Christian College.