First Posted: 3/3/2015
Five years after retiring from coaching, there are things I really miss about the game. I miss the relationship with the players, watching the chemistry of a team develop and the competition, especially in big games. And I really miss T-Bird Camp, the week long summer program that lured many of this area’s youngest players to LCC’s campus to test their basketball skills against one another.
In the camp’s first summer, 1980, 29 basketball players showed up. By the end of the decade, nearly 200 campers were marching into our gym each year looking to show off their game. The camp was limited to fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, and they came from far and wide. I loved working with these young kids, many of whom blossomed into terrific players.
My philosophy for the camp evolved in the early years. In the beginning, we spent 90 percent of our time teaching fundamentals, rotating the kids between stations manned by my players who also coached the teams. But I decided the camp was missing a key ingredient: joy. I simply did not hear enough laughter and excitement and began creating alterations that transformed the camp into a week of exhilaration and fun. That was accomplished by creating as many competitive situations as possible. We added one on one, two on two, three on three, PIG, 3-point shootouts and many more competitions for each age group, and I immediately saw what I was seeking. Passion and laughter became the heart and soul of camp.
One summer we lowered the portable baskets and started a slam dunk competition for every age level. It quickly became one of the most popular activities in camp. The most memorable dunk champion was Desi Kirkman who, as a fifth-grader, shocked everyone by throwing down a two hand jam, grabbing the rim, placing both feet on the bank board and then doing a backward somersault with a perfect landing. The camp exploded with admiration. Little did I know then that eight years later Desi would play an instrumental role in bringing LCC our first basketball state championship.
Another feature that became a camp favorite was the T-Bird Camp News, a daily newspaper highlighting each day’s activities, including stars of the games, predictions and humorous antidotes. The newspaper was a labor of love. I was often at school late in the evening getting it ready for the next day. I posted the newspaper on the bulletin board every morning and when the doors opened the campers would flock to the board to see if they made the news. My goal was to try to get every camper’s name in the paper at least once during the week, a challenge I never quite achieved.
In the early years it was a real treat when I showed the old reel to reel NBA highlight films to the kids. I obtained the LA Laker film but getting the Boston Celtic (my favorite team) film proved nearly impossible. When I called their headquarters to request the film I was told they only allowed it to be sent within 150 miles of Boston, no exceptions. I was persistent to the point of annoyance. One year I was able to get the Celtic President’s secretary on the phone and complained how sad it was that a Celtic fan in Ohio could get the Laker film but not theirs. The secretary, Mary, told me to hold and seconds later I heard the barking voice of Red Auerbach, the Celtic legendary coach, on the phone. After a brief debate he consented to release the film on the promise I would return it immediately after showing. Every year thereafter I returned the film along with a T-Bird Camp T-shirt for Mary, the secretary who brokered the deal. Years later while on an east coast vacation with my family we tried to gain entry into the venerable Boston Garden, the home of the Celtics, but it was locked up. I climbed some steps and found the Celtic offices. Mary was sitting at her desk. I told her she wouldn’t know me but I was the high school coach from Ohio who had been sending her T-shirts for years. “I know you, Mary replied, you’re coach Seggerson.” And with that we were given a VIP tour of the Boston Gardens including the famously deplorable visitor’s locker room.
So many memories:
• A young (fifth grade) Aaron Hutchins, a future Ohio Mr. Basketball, getting the ball in bounds, down two, in the camp championship game with just seconds on the clock and dribbling in the wrong direction. By the time he realized his mistake he had just enough time to dribble back to half court and launch a long, desperation shot at the buzzer… all net. It was not the last time Hutchins performed a last second miracle during his remarkable career.
• Chris Tebben, a camper from Detroit staying with his grandparents here in town, arriving in camp with Nike’s Michael Jordan shoes, the first sighting of the legendary kicks in Lima. He was not only a baller, he had style. If Chris still has those shoes and the box they came in, they’re worth a small fortune.
• We were giving the campers a much needed break on a sweltering afternoon with the temperature reaching 100 degrees outside. We sat the kids on the gym floor while I delivered a lecture on how commitment and dedication would have to be part of their game plan if they wanted to achieve greatness. I was interrupted by the sound of a basketball pounding the pavement on the outside courts and told the campers whoever was playing in that intense heat was demonstrating my point. When I looked out the door to see who it was, I found Greg Simpson, bathed in sweat, hustling through a grueling shooting drill. Simpson, who would become a two-time Ohio Mr. Basketball, was more than the most naturally gifted player in Lima history. He was passionately committed to becoming a great player.
• Looking out my office window hours after camp had closed and watching a young Mark Walsh working to perfect a rocker move he had learned in camp that day. Years later he used the move along the baseline, with deadly precision, on some of our most successful squads.
• The look of disappointment on the face of a youthful Tyler Ulis when I told him he was too young for camp but that he could stick around and watch. When two players went down in one of the first games he stepped in and, despite being the smallest player in camp, dominated. Over the next five years he became one of my all-time favorite campers. Today he is the starting point guard for the University of Kentucky, the number one college team in the nation.
• Jamar Butler, another Ohio Mr. Basketball, was a long time T-Bird Camper. Jamar went on to star at Ohio State University and still holds several Buckeye records. I asked him to speak to the camp one summer about his college experience. Butler was terrific that day and held the campers in the palm of his hands. When he finished, Butler was interviewed by Vince Koza, of WLIO-TV, who asked him what he remembered most about his own experience at T-Bird Camp. “When I was a kid, Jamar informed him, I fell in love with basketball at T-Bird Camp.”
I think that was one of the nicest compliments I ever received as a coach.
