Patuxent High School graduate Patrick Robinson, “Pat The Roc”, speaks to campers at The Rick Weber & Vashawne Gross Basketball Skills Camp last Wednesday at Huntingtown High School.
Patuxent High School graduate Patrick Robinson, “Pat The Roc”, speaks to campers at The Rick Weber & Vashawne Gross Basketball Skills Camp last Wednesday at Huntingtown High School.
For almost 40 years, basketball players in Calvert County have had the opportunity to participate in The Rick Weber & VaShawne Gross Basketball Skills Camp.
“I think the first year we ran this camp we had about 19 kids, and it has built over time,” said Weber, who is the principal at Huntingtown High School. “We have had as many as 175 kids in a week. We are just really trying to promote basketball in the county. Even though I haven’t been coaching in a while, I keep my hand in this just to keep it going and give kids an opportunity to play.”
This year is the first year the camp has been held entirely at Huntingtown High School’s gymnasium.
“I am pleased that we are still going strong,” Weber said. “What’s really nice is to see after all these years guys that have went to [the camp when they were young] come back like Patrick Robinson or VaShawne [Gross] and want to come back and help,” Weber said.
Robinson and Gross, once participants in the camp themselves, have continued to come back year after year to the camp.
“I went to this camp, so for me to be able to come back and help hold a tradition down with Mr. Weber and continue to give a kid something to do in the summertime is the best thing ever,” Gross said. “We are making kids smile and their parents happy.”
Last Wednesday, Robinson returned back to the camp he grew up attending to speak to the campers and promote his motto that anything is possible.
“I’m excited to be back here at Huntingtown High School,” said Robinson, also known as “Pat The Roc”. “This was actually the first basketball camp that I went to as a kid. I was about 6 or 7 years old when I attended my first camp with all the fundamentals and the foundation of everything I know about basketball I learned from Mr. Weber.”
Robinson, a Patuxent High School graduate, started an academy in Maryland called Pat The Roc Academy which trains people of all ages the sport of basketball. Robinson has trained and worked with professional players from the NBA and WNBA who have played NCAA Division I basketball.
“Quinn Cook started off in my program and I actually brought him to this camp one time to speak,” Robinson said talking about the current Golden State Warriors point guard. “It is always an honor for me to be able to come back and share my story because I can relate to those kids.”
Gross and Weber are appreciative that Robinson continues to return year after year to the camp where he learned how to play himself in order to inspire the campers that their dreams can become reality.
“Every year we have had this camp, Pat has been coming down [to speak to the kids] and he doesn’t have to come down,” Gross said. “We really appreciate him and what he’s been doing for us.”
Campers this year participated in a four-day long camp where they learned the fundamentals of the sport with individualized goals for the different age groups each day.
“We have about 60 campers this year from age 6 up to 16, but it is not about how many campers we have, it is about how we can adjust and adapt with the people we have,” Gross said. “This year we kind of individualized each day so for the older groups, we are trying to get them ready for high school, for the younger groups trying to get them ready for middle school, and for the youngest kids trying to get them to have fun. They come to camp to have fun, but we still want to teach them the basic fundamentals.”
Weber noted that their camp focuses more on skills rather than team championships and league winners.
“We play because kids like to play, but we don’t emphasize the championship as much,” Weber said. “Our emphasis is on the drill work and station work, and hopefully they’ll take that and put it into the game.”
After each week of camp concludes on a Thursday, Weber and the coaching staff hope that they have inspired the players to want to get back out on the court Friday morning and continue to play.
“Our goal is that on Friday morning the kids want to go out and work on what they’ve learned here,” Weber said. “I think basketball is a great sport and a great activity for kids, so we are just trying to promote the sport.”
