Henzell delighted with Treasure Beach basketball camp

Over 1,100 kids mainly from St Elizabeth and Manchester communities recently took part in the seventh staging of Breds Treasure Beach Foundation/Philadelphia Men’s Basketball League one-week camp, which was held at the Treasure Beach Sports Park in St Elizabeth.

The camp, which ended on Friday, also saw 15 children from the volatile community of Majesty Gardens that is located in Kingston, also participating in the event. The camp was conducted under the guidance of 50 college and high-school basketball coaches from Philadelphia in the United States.

Jason Henzell, founder of the Breds Treasure Beach Foundation, said that like in previous years, the camp was a very successful one.

“These children have learned a lot about life and about better self-esteem, team work, respect, punctuality and listening to authority; and they also had a lot of fun at the camp,” said Henzell. “A lot of kids in rural and urban areas kind of grow up in a tough-love kind of environment and so when these coaches come, they show them so much love, because they remember their names and they gave them so much personal interest that the children are stunned.”

“You can see them changing by having a lot more respect for each other and so they start to treat each other with a difference, and that is what I am more proud of now,” Henzell added.

He underlines that the coaches have done a wonderful job, because they have dedicated a lot of their time and energy in imparting their knowledge to the participants during the camp.

“These coaches take a week out of their lives and they bought their own plane tickets and they gave it everything, because to stand upon a basketball court for five days, seven hours per day, is not a joke; so it is a huge commitment and sacrifice that they have made to come down here,” Henzell said.