For the past two weeks, Chattanooga State Community College has hosted nearly 200 boys and girls from the inner-city area through basketball camps that were intended to do more than just teach kids the fundamentals of the game.
"The biggest thing was that we wanted to try and expose them to more than just basketball," Chattanooga State men's coach Jay Price said. "We really wanted to get them on a college campus and let them walk around and see what it's like to go to college, and to really do this at a young age so that now for some of those kids this is something that they could see as a goal for themselves."
Before becoming a three-year starting point guard at Tennessee, where he played from 1988 to 1992, Price lived in the Chattanooga inner-city area. He starred in basketball for Brainerd High School.
"I know when I was young, I didn't go to a college campus until I was 16 or 17 years old," he said. "So for (these kids) to be able to be on a college campus at age 7 or 8, that is pretty good for them to do at an early age."
Partnering with the Chattanooga Department of Youth and Family Development, which provided transportation, the school had children ages 6-14 on campus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Thursday the past two weeks, with a girls' camp and then a boys' camp.
"So many of our kids who live right here in Chattanooga didn't know that Chattanooga State even existed," said Greta Hayes, the city's director of youth and family development. "They didn't know what it was.
"Our mission was to get them on college campuses, in a fun atmosphere, and expose them to the campus and the importance of education, while also engaging in things that they want to do at their ages," Hayes said. "So we were able to pull this basketball camp together."
She and Price called the camps a "win-win" for everyone involved.
"We were expecting 80 (kids) for each week. That was what we kind of worked out in our numbers that we could handle," Price said Thursday. "But the girls' camp averaged about 85, and then this week (with the boys) we have been right at 100 every day."
The numbers were manageable, however.
"We are touching a different market than most. We are specifically targeting kids who are interested in basketball," Price said. "You can tell all those kids that are in (the gym) are interested. They are trying. Some of them are a lot more skilled than others, but they are giving their effort. So we are working strictly with a lot of kids who want to be here, and that makes it even more fun."
According to Hayes, these camps have opened doors to what the department can do in the future. Already looking to incorporate more camps throughout the year during fall break and spring break, Hayes and Price are hoping the excitement continues.
"We see that there is an interest and a need, and I have already talked to everybody in our office, just telling them that this works," Hayes said. "I think it is important for our kids to get some positive reinforcement and to show them that there are some other alternate opportunities out there for them. We believe in them and we may not be able to get everybody, but I really believe that we are going to be able to change some kids' lives by exposing these kids early on."
Price already can see positives from the camps.
"Our success is if at the end of the fourth day of camp and the kids are still excited, then we have done our job," he said Thursday. "We know they have gotten instruction because we have people who have really taken their time to being engaged with them in their stations and making sure they work. So we know they have gotten the instruction part of it, and we know they have had fun because they are still excited."
"Our goal was met."
Contact Tori McElhaney at sports@timesfreepress.com.