Former professional basketball player Steven Cramer held a youth basketball camp at the Bowling Green community center this past Monday. Cramer has been holding various camps in the area all summer.
This particular camp was geared for elementary aged children, though Cramer usually focuses on junior high to high school level players. He also occasionally works at the collegiate and professional level.
The camp focused shooting skills for the entirety of the session. There were drills for several different situations players could find themselves in during a real game. Using cones and demonstrations, Cramer walked the kids through how to come off screens, ball fake and create space, use the pivot foot, spin in the post, and other game ready moves all with the intention of shooting the basketball.
Before doing these camps, Cramer played college basketball where he was an All-American at Hope College, a small school in Holland, Michigan. Following his graduation with a degree in elementary education, Cramer decided to play professionally overseas in Europe. Cramer had a four-year professional playing career before returning to the States.
After returning, Cramer taught elementary school for two years. Within this time, Cramer did his first small unofficial camp in Michigan.
As a child, the former pro went to a number of high level camps himself.
“I went to every camp I could as a kid. I did everything I could as a player and I had an itch for getting into coaching,” Cramer said. “I was already playing professionally and I learned a lot of things that I had never even heard of in the U.S. That’s when I said I’m going to run my own basketball camp and I gave it my first try in 2008.”
Between the creations of Cramer Basketball, which is the name of his brand now, and the unofficial camp in 2008, Cramer held at least one camp every year. It was last summer when he decided it was time to start taking his camps on the road and doing them more frequently. Cramer then held the camps throughout Michigan and Ohio before going back overseas to Germany to coach for several months.
Following his coaching stint, the now full-time basketball connoisseur moved to Bowling Green with his wife, and Cramer Basketball became a brand and full-time dedication. Camps are now held at least four times a week and there have been at least 30 camps held this summer.
The camps are frequent and medium sized so that each player can get individual attention. The goal of the camp, according to Cramer, is up to each individual player.
“You have to enjoy the game to get better at it,” Cramer said. “The goal is whatever they want it to be. I work with players that take it seriously because they just want to make a [high school] varsity team. On the other hand I might work with an advanced junior high player and they already have goals to play in college and hopefully one day the NBA or professionally overseas. Whatever their goal is, that’s mine when I’m working with them. I try not to push my goals on any player, but I try to be realistic after my experiences playing college players and NBA players and professional players so I can be realistic with them about what it’s going to take.”
Cramer has a number of camps still open for registration in Bowling Green. On July 28-30 there will be an attack skills camp open to grades 5 through 12 at the Bowling Green community center. Following that on August 6 and 7, there will be a finishing and shooting camp also open to grades 5 through 12 at the community center. Registration can be done by calling the community center or showing up at the time of the camp. More information can also be found on cramerbasketball.com.
