Tamika Catchings hosts annual basketball camp, sells out for fifth straight year

Over 200 campers joined Tamika Catchings and volunteers  for her three-day basketball camp

Tamika Catchings hosted her 14th annual Holiday basketball camp this past week, allowing kids to hone their basketball skills and, more simply, get out and play while on winter break.

“I remember for me as a kid and right after Christmas,” Catchings said, “I got my presents and I played with them for the first couple of days and then I’m like, ‘I’m bored, I want to go outside.’

“So this was a perfect time to be able to provide an opportunity for kids to come to a safe environment and do something that I love to do, which is to play basketball and teach it. We have a great volunteer team that comes out every year. Everybody volunteers their time to come and be a part of this.”

Catchings addresses the campers.

As a high schooler in Illinois, Catchings attended a few of Doug Bruno’s camp (the head coach of DePaul University), and a Nike camp. But that was about it.

At Catch’s camp, held at Warren Central High School, each group went around to different baskets for station work in the morning (the camp was from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.). The fun part — the games — was the in the afternoon.

She also had a couple speakers. David Fisher, ‘The Jump Rope Warrior,’ and Jared Lawrence from Performance Training Inc. (PTI) were this year’s guests.

One big development was the number of boys that attended. It’s not quite 50-50, but it’s getting up there.

More than 200 kids attended the three-day camp, which sold out for the fifth consecutive year. For now, the Indiana Fever star likes that number, but she does have aspirations to one day expand.

“I like the number that we have because it’s manageable and we could eventually cap out at a higher number,” Catchings said, “but I think right now, being able to manage the kids, get them moving around and keep them all active — that’s one of my biggest things.

“This is something that eventually I want to be the best camp in the midwest, where people come from all over. We get a lot of kids from Chicago, kids from Ohio and all of the surrounding states. I think people are starting to hear about us.”

Paul George was popular with the campers. (Photo: Ron Hoskins)

Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie White, Paul George, Boomer (Pacers’ mascot), and Kelly Faris, a WNBA player and Indianapolis native, dropped by to hang out with campers — and to support the Fever’s leader.

Catchings, who has played her entire professional career in Indianapolis (14-plus years), is so good with the kids. She wants them to have a great time, but also to improve in the game they love.

Next year’s camp is already scheduled and registration is already available. It’ll be held Dec. 28-30 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Warren Central High School.

Register before February 1st and receive 50 percent off registration, so $50 per camper.