During July 7-14 I went to Cohutta Springs Youth Camp for basketball RAD camp. Cohutta Springs Youth Camp, is a Seventh Day Adventist camp opened during the summer for youth camp, teen camp, and a few weeks of family camp. The camp I participated in was RAD basketball during the teen camp week.
At Camp, usually you are put with a few girls in your cabin that do the same event as you. Since me and my sister Angelina Schober (grade 9) were the only girls in basketball RAD camp, we were put with all the volleyball RAD girls also. RAD campers have a different schedule since they mainly focus on one activity all day. We only went to line calls at night, and didn’t have to memorize the Bible verse of the day or do cleaning duties; because we would have to drive an hour to Georgia Cumberland Academy, and come back to the camp just in time for dinner.
Every day we would bring a sacked lunch and load up the bus with all the RAD volleyball and basketball campers. We would then head on over to Georgia Cumberland Academy’s gym. As we arrived we would all stretch out together, but then the volleyball campers would head over to the older gym, as all the basketball players would stay in the new gym. Basketball camp was led by Bobby Martinez (a junior at Southern Adventist University), GCA’s boys JV basketball coach Cole Hagley, and his brother Chase Hagley. Throughout the week we learned how important free throws were, we conditioned ourselves, and practiced our ball handling skills. We usually spent a few hours in the morning conditioning, then after lunch we would practice our general basketball skills. Every day we would end off with going either to fun times which is free time, or an activity that we chose to do with all the other RAD campers.
As the week came to an end we knew that we had the big game to look forward to, counselors vs the campers. We started off the day with the first two JV basketball and volleyball games. Which my sister and I had played in. At first, the campers were pulling ahead, but the staff started pushing back. One of our best players on JV Caleb Martinez (10) had gotten hurt earlier in the week. He had severely damaged and twisted his wrist during warmups. During the game Martinez ended up pulling most of our team’s points even with one hand, by driving in every time; and getting all free throw shots. In the end, the staff did win by twenty points, but the JV team did try to play their best. As the end of the day started to roll in it was time for the big game: the varsity basketball game. The best counselors would be going against the top campers. Everyone held their breath as the camp director PJ and all the counselors played their hardest against the campers. In the end the staff won by 15 points, but the varsity boys still managed to have fun.
As the week came to an end, I personally had learned what it was like to have good teamwork. I also made a few friends from rival GCA named Jensen Allen (9) and Caleb Martinez (10). Jensen Allen said “I enjoyed basketball camp, because I wanted to improve my basketball skills, which I achieved over the course of the week. I also managed to get closer to God through the play on Friday night which touched my heart spiritually, and saw God through my counselor Cole Boggess (A junior at SAU).”
Overall, basketball RAD camp was a success, and has touched my heart and other campers hearts also. For more information about Cohutta Springs Youth camp you can visit their page: Camps — Cohutta Springs Youth Camp (cs-yc.com).
