The sounds of squeaking sneakers and balls bouncing on the hardwood are reverberating throughout the Libla Family Sports Complex again as Three Rivers hosts the annual Gene Bess Basketball Camp.
“We have 43 kids in the coed camp this week,” Three Rivers men’s basketball coach Brian Bess said. “Last year we had 17 so we’re picking up the numbers after dealing with COVID the past two years. We used to offer housing, but obviously we couldn’t do that during COVID and the on-campus housing is currently being renovated so that’s hurt our numbers a little bit.”
Along with Brian Bess, a few of the current Raiders players and Gene Bess himself have been coming out this week to help the campers improve their game.
“We started this camp shortly after I got to Three Rivers and I’ve been here for over 50 years,” Gene Bess said. “I think we’ve got a good group out there this week.
“I can definitely see the improvement.”
There have been a lot of players that have gone through the camp over the years, including a few that made it to the NBA. Tyler and Ben Hansbrough were campers along with Otto Porter Jr. during his junior year of high school, Brian Bess said.
The main focus of the camp has been to improve the fundamentals of the game to campers aging from as young as 8 all the way through high school.
“We’ve been doing a lot of shooting drills,” Brian Bess said. “Tuesday we focused on passing and dribbling, defense on Wednesday and Thursday will be all about rebounding.”
The coed camp will run through Friday and the boys basketball camp will start up Monday.
Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic