The True Admirals

Sometimes when your living in the moment, you don't understand or realize something great is happening around you. An example? Well how about five years worth of them? From ages 10 to 14, I went to St. John's basketball camp in Washington, DC (the high school). Over these five years, I played in over 50 games, made tons of friends, and had some of the best experiences of my life all while attempting to win a championship and to get that elusive Playmaker Award (in my last week at the camp I finally won it). Between the countless games of one on one, "40", and horse I had three camp coaches who could go on to play in a professional league of some sort. Chris Wright and Nolan Smith both have a chance at playing in the NBA (and were also, McDonald's All-Americans, Nolan was only at the camp for a year before transferring to Oak Hill Academy), while LJ Hoes was drafted out of high school in the third round of the MLB draft (last year) by the Baltimore Orioles. Although I haven't been to the camp in two years and I have no intention of ever returning (I'm too old now), I was looking at some of the trophies I won at the camp and it made me think of all the good times, which led me to think of Chris, Nolan, and LJ. St. John's was probably the best camp (basketball and normal alike) I have ever attended, somehow mixing in the right amount of playing time and instruction in to be successful (the Univ of Maryland and their "Gary Williams Basketball Camp" could learn a few things from St. John's) and allowing the young high schoolers (almost every coach was in high school) to leave an impact on the kids. How often does someone get to say they were happily coached by an All-American? Even though the camp had superstars in Nolan, Chris, and LJ, they didn't upstage the other coaches and I feel it would be unfair if I left out my other coaches who probably had a bigger impact on my basketball "career" than the aforementioned three; so Katherine DeStefano and Dominic Milburn and every other coach at St. John's and camper at St. John's, thanks for the memories.