BASKETBALL in Jamaica has seen a steady decline in its popularity since the heady days of the 1990s.

Basketball hoops are no longer visible on every street corner or in every schoolyard in Jamaica, and more and more youngsters have to wait until high school to get introduced to the sport.

This is all set to change, however, as a team of basketball enthusiasts have come together to create Hoop Kidz, a youth basketball development initiative aimed at introducing the sport to children at a much earlier age.

Led by founder and director Dwight Jarrett, strength and conditioning coach of the Calabar High School track and field team, Hoop Kidz is a collection of three youth basketball camps designed to teach basketball all year round and aimed squarely at prep and primary school children aged 7-11.

The first of the three is a summer basketball camp; the second — a weekend (Saturday) camp held all year round; and the third — an after-school camp held during the school terms.

According to Jarrett, the idea was to make teaching fundamental basketball to children as fun, interactive and enjoyable as possible, in order to get them to fall in love with the sport.

“At this age, we have to make the sport seem more like a fun pastime rather than rigorous, strenuous training sessions in order to help develop a strong attraction to the sport. Once that is established, it is seamless to move them on to more intense training later,” he said.

The Hoop Kidz Summer Basketball Camp is scheduled for July 2-26 this year at the customised basketball facilities at Jamaica College.

Technical director and head of the Hoop Kidz coaching staff Duane Cunningham pointed out that special hoops and equipment were brought in to make the camp more age appropriate.

“Jamaica College has excellent basketball facilities at the Patrick Gordon Basketball Court, but for the little tykes we had to import adjustable height stations, smaller hoops and smaller balls as it is not recommended that the young ones shoot on the 10-foot rims using the adult balls. This develops bad habits and poor mechanics that may have to be corrected later on, not to mention it can frustrate and turn off the little ones. This attention to detail is evident in other aspects of the programme,” Cunningham said.

“Jamaica has no shortage of excellent, certified, youth basketball coaches. But because we lack a very robust under-12 youth basketball system, we had to train and adapt our coaches to the unique challenges of working with young kids, who bring their own distinct challenges. For example, our coaches are trained to emphasise fun and involvement in all activities. Younger kids have a notoriously short attention span and can frustrate even the most patient coaches, and so our coaching staff ensures, therefore, that no child is left behind and everyone gets the same opportunities. One way we’ve been able to do this is by adopting a one-ball, one-child philosophy so that no camper ever has to wait too long to be engaged and involved. When I say dribble, everyone dribbles,” stated Cunningham.

President of the Jamaica College Old Boys Association and communications director for the programme, Major Basil Jarrett, says he was excited when he was first approached by Cunningham with the idea to start Hoop Kidz.

“I was obviously very attracted to the programme as it could add some revenue to the Old Boys Association, but I was even more excited because of my own experiences with basketball. I started playing basketball at JC at age 15 and in two years I was a starter and captain of the senior team. I went on to play for The University of the West Indies as well as a couple of Division One clubs in Jamaica and was a ‘bona fide baller’ in my mind,” he said.

But a rude awakening awaited Major Jarrett when he enrolled at Long Island University in New York and thought, without a shadow of a doubt, he could walk on and receive an NCAA scholarship.

“What I realised, however, was that I was way out of my league playing against guys who were younger than I was but had four times as much experience playing organised basketball. That experience has always dogged me as I wondered how good I could have been had I got an earlier start and learnt certain fundamentals sooner. When Duane approached me, I was surprised to find out that nearly 20 years later, we still do not have a proper youth basketball development system in place at the prep and primary school levels, so it was a no-brainer for me to get involved,” he said.

“When you consider, too that basketball has the joint second-highest number of available NCAA college scholarships available, tied with athletics and behind only American Football, it is clear how an earlier start can open up wonderful and lucrative scholarship opportunities for our boys and girls who are world renowned for their physical and athletic abilities,” Major Jarrett added.

When asked about competition from other camps or summer activities, Cunningham said that he saw “complementors, not competitors”.

“Right now, there is such a need for basketball to be developed at the youth level, that we encourage and embrace other camps. What we are trying to do is to promote and develop basketball in Jamaica in general in order to improve the sport across the board.”

Director Dwight Jarrett agrees with this view on competing camps and activities, and goes even one step further: “Studies have shown that children who participate in one specialised sport are at greater risk for burnout, anxiety, depression, and loss of confidence. We encourage parents, therefore, to expose their children to as many sporting activities as possible. Let them run track, let them attend football camp, let them cross train and let them play basketball. Kids will not only have more options to find their true calling, but will also develop happier and healthier attitudes,” he said.

The Hoop Kidz Summer Basketball Camp is broken down into two, 2 week camps which will teach basketball basics such as dribbling, shooting, passing, rebounding, footwork and positioning, among other skills.

Camp One will run from July 2 -12 and Camp Two from July 16-26. Additionally, parents have the option of enrolling in a four-week camp, where the second two weeks is treated as an advanced skills camp.

Parents are invited to visit the Hoop Kidz website at www.hoopkidzja.com for more information and also register there.