The annual tradition that is the Bailen Basketball Summer Camp at Nease High School is back and in full force with six weeks of camps scheduled throughout the summer in June and July.
The only week there will not be a camp in the coming weeks will be the first week of July due to the Fourth of July holiday taking place that week.
Nease High boys basketball coach Josh Bailen puts on the camp and has been doing so since 2014, but the legacy of the camp goes even further than that, as he remembers being a camper himself in 2000 and 2001.
“When I was 16, I got to be one of the lead counselors and I remember just what an impact it made on me as a kid and it was always a dream to be a head basketball coach and to be able to do that here,” Bailen said. “We’re just trying to keep passing that on to these kids now.”
Just as Bailen was years ago, the camp had counselors that were a mix of both current high schoolers on the basketball squad and alumni who have gone off to play in college.
“We have guys like Logan Ryan, who is playing at St. Leo, who are able to come back and now run the show,” Bailen said. “That’s so huge.”
