BENTON – Former Oklahoma Sooners basketball player and former NBA player Jeff Webster is bringing the Nike Pro Skills Basketball camp to Benton at the Boys & Girls Club at Riverside Park. Children of all ages will be able to participate in this camp as grades kindergarten through third grade will occur on Friday, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., in the one-day camp.
Grades fourth through 12th will participate in a two-day camp, which will begin Saturday from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Cost for the two-day camp is $85 and Friday’s camp for the youngsters will be $35. Register at nikeproskills.com/register.
“Jeff Webster used to play for the Miami Heat and went to the University of Oklahoma, but he was actually born in Pine Bluff, so he has a heart for Arkansas,” Tavallis Stephens, who helps with the camp, said. “They have these types of things in Dallas, Louisiana and a lot of places.”
Nike Pro Skills basketball has been in existence for the past 13 years, according to the website, and focuses on not only basketball skills, but how to teach student athletes to learn, live and love the game, and that education is the most important.
Webster, the president at Nike Pro Skills, averaged 17.8 points and 6.2 rebounds in his career for the Sooners, including 23.7 and 7.8, respectively, his senior season at Oklahoma. Webster was drafted in the second round of the 1994 NBA Draft by the Miami Heat.
“Everyone is not going to be able to jump out of the gym, but if you know how to play the game correctly, be coachable, teach them to be better young men and young women,” Stephens said. “We preach education. If you don’t have a 2.5, you can’t participate.