A number of children from Talladega and St. Clair counties are halfway through a week of basketball camp in Pell City. Pell City native Brian Carroll is leading the 10th annual All-Star Basketball Camp at the Pell City Civic Center through Friday.
Carroll began the camp as a way to teach young children the fundamentals of basketball. While coaching at private schools including Victory Christian, Coosa Valley Academy and Cornerstone Christian, Carroll said he saw a lot of athletes with poor fundamentals. So he decided to start holding camps to teach the basics of basketball to boys and girls in grades 1-8.
“I wanted to get the kids at an early age,” he said Wednesday. “If they can get just one or two things a year, they’ll know most of the basics by the time they get to the varsity level. I’m just trying to help them with their fundamentals.”
Carroll most recently coached at Cornerstone, where he led the team to a state championship his only season at the school.
“There were some good kids there,” he said. “I just had a good group of boys that worked well together. They had good teamwork. Teamwork is what I’ve been focusing on this week at this camp. That’s been a real big emphasis in the camp.”
Carroll has divided the camp into two sessions each day. Boys and girls in grades 1-4 participate from 9 a.m. until noon while children in grades 5-8 take part in the camp from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. The camp has only 18 participants this year, but Carroll said that number allows for a lot of teaching.
Carroll is currently coaching an AAU basketball team after leaving Cornerstone and moving back to Pell City. He looks to continue to grow the camp each year.
“I love the kids,” he said. “I love being around basketball. I’ve got kids from Talladega Pell City, Munford, Odenville. That’s good that they can go back to their hometowns with what they’ve learned this week.”
