Players will do what you expect of them –
The schedule for campers and coaches at Snow Valley are not for everyone. Roll call at 6:15 am and defensive clinic at 6:20 am – all before breakfast which will test a normal basketball players passion. NOT at Snow Valley. The players are there for one reason and one reason only, to get better! The camp is four and ½ days long and is not your typical sports camp. It is filled with several clinics and player development sessions that go from the first roll call at 6:15am all the way until the last whistle of your 5v5 game that night that will end 10 or 10:30pm. Then campers get some food and head to bed because 5:30 is coming. What I witnessed in my week was a basketball junkies dream, a gym rats paradise and a coaches wishes all coming true at once. The players were there every morning with smiles on their faces, ears and eyes open to learn what each coach and clinician was offering in the way of basketball knowledge.
Amazing the Growth that occurred
With all the fancy drills that are at our fingertips, it was refreshing to see basketball coaching and development done in its purest form. At Snow Valley you are not going to see fancy drills, you are going to see hard work, hard work, and more hard work. Nestled in the farm country of Iowa you will find Wartburg College. A division 3 school that has a great facility that can hold the 400+ campers that come from across the globe to get what Snow Valley has to offer. . Snow Valley is ranked as one of the top two skills camps in the country and is based on the philosophy of simple and very effective set of drills. Drills such as a camp staple known as Cut throat. A 4 on 4 game with a specific set of rules used to teach the campers how to play basketball in a fast paced and tough environment. It is basketball and it is beautiful. The campers and coaches dig in for the week, break down offense, defense, individual player development and team concepts and flat out get better.
So many different ways to teach something yet they all seem to be the right way
I am from Texas. The camp is held in Iowa. My roommate was from Lithuania and coached in the UK. Coaches from Louisiana, California, Colorado, Arizona, Missouri, Michigan, Spain, and many more from across the globe. Coaches from across the world and across many different levels of basketball. Such as Don Showalter, a 10 time gold medal winning coach with USA basketball, Tates Locke, a coach that has a lifetime of knowledge about the game. All of these coaches, men and women have one thing we in common, basketball. The amazing thing about the coaching staff was watching and listening to the coaches teach their way of basketball. It did not matter the language, terminology or the location, one thing was certain – basketball is basketball and it connects people. I had the opportunity to meet and talk to so many successful people and no two ways were done the same. Sure, there were differences in how each coach taught and how we each got the job done but we are all coaches and teachers of the game no matter the level.e are here to make players better and leave our mark on those players so that they may be successful.
I can’t say thank you enough to Coach Don Showalter of USA Basketball and Coach Dave Schlabaugh of Cornell College for allowing me the opportunity to come to Snow Valley the past two summers and be a part of something this special. It allowed me to watch, learn, grow and connect with people from all over the world and for that I am truly appreciative! I have made, not just basketball connections, but friends that I stay in touch with to this day. Basketball is an amazing vehicle that has and continues to take me on a journey that truly is beautiful!
