Ben Howland Hoops Camp Ends

The theme at last week’s fifth annual Ben Howland Youth Basketball Camp was simple: work hard, play hard have fun. That’s what 195 kids who participated did, and players and coaches alike left the Palisades High gym satisfied. “This might be the best camp we’ve had here yet because you all have such good attitudes and are very coachable,” Howland told his campers at the awards ceremony Friday. “That’s the kind of player we like to recruit at UCLA because those are the players who keep getting better every day, every week, every month and every year. You have to spend time to be a good player, it doesn’t just happen.” That was one of the many messages kids took from the five-day camp, which included 3-on-3 and 5-on-5 games and drills geared towards the basic fundamentals–shooting, passing, dribbling and defense. Arkansas won the SEC Division (grade 1-2) after a convincing 29-19 win over Florida in the final. Coached by recent PaliHi graduate Brice Williams, who played both football and basketball for the Dolphins, Arkansas’ roster consisted of Isaac Akin, Alex Amster, Aaron Frey, Jackson Gelbard, Rebecca Gould, Jack North, Benjamin Tannenbaum and Leigh Wooster. The Razorbacks went 8-1 on their way to the title. North, Tannenbaum and Wooster also won the 3-on-3 competition. Eli Nickoll of Mississippi won the “Hot Shot” contest, Cameron MacDonald of Florida was named Best Defensive Player and Kentucky’s Augie Byers won the Best Attitude Award. The Most Valuable Player honor went to Aaron Goldstein of Mississippi State. The pressure was on PaliHi boys’ coach James Paleno, who traditionally coaches UCLA in the PAC-10 Division (grades 3-4). The Bruins lost to Cal in the semifinals in sudden death overtime. Cal went on to beat Stanford, 28-20, in Friday’s championship game and compiling an impressive 8-1 record under coach Austin Bly. “It was a tough way to lose,” Paleno admitted. In the 3-on-3 competition, Everett Graves, Akosh Davani and Ramteen Rastegar of Oregon took first place. Daniel Niv of USC won the “Hot Shot” competition and Stanford’s Jake Lyon was named Best Defensive Player. The Attitude Award went to Maya Schneider of Cal and the Bears’ Brett Polson was selected Most Valuable Player. The Spurs went 9-1 and wound up winning the NBA Division (grades 5-7) on Adam Stryer’s go-ahead free throw with four seconds left in a 41-40 victory over the Celtics in the championship game. Coached by former Palisades High player Isaiah Sago, the Spurs roster consisted of Stryer, Jack Weiner, Brendan Sharpe, Scott Polson, Jeremiah Fountain, Luke Bennett and Joshua Baruch. Holden Thomas of the Celtics was named Most Valuable Player. He also teamed up with Wiener and the Lakers’ Joshua Miller to win the 3-on-3 competition. Charlie Ellis of the Pacers won the “Hot Shot” competition in which players had one minute to make as many baskets as possible from designated spots on the court. Jack Elias of the Lakers got the award for Best Attitude and Stryer was named Best Defensive Player. Besides Sago and Williams, four other ex-Dolphins were coaches at the camp. Paul Davis (Class of 2007) coached Mississippi State; Zaiid Leflore (Class of 1995) coached Washington; Tyree Williams (Class of 1997) coached Stanford and Brian Barner (Class of 2007) coached Auburn. “It was a lot of fun coaching these kids,” Williams said. “I’d like to come back and do it again if I can.”