The eighth annual Sports Work Academy basketball camp, which took place Saturday at the Avenue B YMCA, gave children a chance to showcase their basketball skills and pick up new ones along the way.

Twenty-five participants ages 5-18 went through different drills like dribbling, shooting and defense.

Central Elementary School student Jahee Roberts, who is 10, has been nearly every year it has been held.

He said it’s great because they teach you skills you need in the game.

He talked about his favorite parts of the clinic.

“I like the layups, the shots, everything, the crossovers,” Roberts said.

Roberts said his favorite basketball player is Carmelo Anthony.

Michael Galloway, who is a 1985 Bogalusa High School graduate, was the man in charge of the clinic

“We’re just excited to keep it going,” Galloway said. “It’s been eight years doing the camp here in Bogalusa. We’re just excited about the turnout. We’re very very happy that we’ve got a lot of kids that come nearly every year to the camp. We’ve got some new kids this year, but we’ve got a lot of repeat kids and that let’s us know that they’re enjoying it and are getting something out of it.”

The group did listening drills, ball handling drills and defensive drills involving change of motion and direction and they worked on other fundamentals.

One of the dribbling drills they did was doing through an obstacle course of cones on one side of the court before racing to the other side and hitting a layup.

The clinic benefits the Sports Work Academy. The major premise of the program focuses on things beyond sports and helps children with life skills.

“Nikita (Wilson) came up with that about 12 years ago,” Galloway said. The biggest thing about Sports Work Academy is that we want to teach kids about more than basketball and more than just any sport. What can you gain from basketball from being an athlete in terms of your listening skills in the classroom and your ability to adapt to new changes and learn new information quickly? Those kinds of skills are transferable to life skills. We talk more about being a well-rounded individual, not just an athlete, but being the total package.”

Helping Galloway with the camp were former NBA, Bogalusa High and LSU player Wilson, University of West Florida graduate assistant and former college basketball player Tessah Holt, 1981 BHS graduate Murrell Galloway and 2002 Varnado High graduate