How Fred VanVleet's basketball camp inspires young Rockford athletes on and off the court
Matt Trowbridge
ROCKFORD — Jacob Elias said he learned “to shoot 3s” at Fred VanVleet’s youth basketball camp Saturday and Sunday at Auburn High School.
But that wasn’t his biggest takeaway from the weekend.
“I got to see Fred,” said Elias, an 11-year-old Christian Life student.
That alone made VanVleet’s annual camp special.
“This shows how humble he is that he comes back,” said Anthony “Doc” Cornell, VanVleet’s former AAU coach at Pryme Tyme, who helped VanVleet run his camp. “A lot of these people they put their names to a camp but they are not there. Fred is actually out here, sitting with the kids, playing with them, challenging them, talking to them, walking around doing drills with them. That’s one of the best feelings ever for kids who might not otherwise ever get to meet an NBA player.”
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Rockford’s only NBA All-Star in history was back at his old high school, working with over 200 kids, from as young as age 4 to as old as a senior in high school.
At times, VanVleet hugged kids who barely came up to his waist Sunday. At other times, he stood under the basket, with a ball tucked under his right arm resting on his hip watching campers play a full-court game. Or he’d get down on all fours and let a young boy climb on his back, then stand up and wind up dangling the kid by one leg before putting the smiling boy back down. Or bet the 7- and 8-year-olds that he could make one of two half-court shots on an 8 ½ foot basket, telling them they would have to run laps around the court if he made one. “Please miss,” came a voice from the young crowd.
Or, during a break, he’d take his 4-year-old daughter into one of the back workout rooms and hold her while she pulled herself up on a chin-up bar.
This camp was for all kids. Even 4-year-old Sanaa VanVleet.
She showed her dad’s instincts on defense, moving her feet well and keeping in front of her man during a drill, but none of her shots reached higher than the bottom of the net on the 8 ½-foot youth baskets on the final court in the Auburn field house. But that was progress. And Fred VanVleet’s camp is all about progress.
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“I love to go to dad’s basketball camp,” she said. “I know how to dribble, but I don’t know how to shoot. But now I know how to touch the net.”
VanVleet’s camp is about basketball. But it’s also about much more than basketball.
“They taught me a couple of new moves,” said Donell Foreman, who will be a sophomore this fall at Stillman Valley. “And to not take everything for granted. Not everyone gets to go here.”
“I feel lucky and special that I am here,” said Camden Wainwright, a 10-year-old who attends Machesney Elementary.
Cornell, who moved to Detroit in 2015 but returned to Rockford to help VanVleet run his camp, mentioned current NFL players James Robinson, Dean Lowry and Auburn’s own Vederian Lowe as other Rockfordians with a great sports story.
But VanVleet’s story also includes staying all four years at Wichita State — a rarity for NBA All-Stars — and lots of academic success.
“That story," Cornell said, "of him being in honors classes at Auburn, then going on to college and finishing four years on the Dean’s List, helps every single kid from Rockford say, ‘He was here. I can do it, too.’ Now you see other guys going on. Vederian Lowe. James Robinson. Dean Lowry. Kids see people before them opened the door, but now Fred has kicked down the door. Now it’s up to them to follow and keep walking through it.”
Maybe people like Mike Jones, a star 6-foot-6 junior center for defending NIC-10 champion Auburn.
“This camp inspires me,” Jones said. “I see that I can do better and that I can get there. I feel like I can be the next one to do that.”
And if they don’t walk through the door to the pros, maybe they can walk through the door to college. Or just to being better high school players — and students.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for them to see someone they see on TV and emulate him,” said Dione Baldwin, whose 9-year-old son, Nicholas, and 5-year-old, Ian, both attended the camp. “It he was able to carve a path, it means they are able to see him come back and they can carve a path also. Particularly since this is at Auburn High School It shows the importance of school and how it’s connected to greater things later on.”
That’s how VanVleet sees it, too.
“It’s a beautiful camp,” VanVleet said. “I think the kids had a lot of fun. It was a good turnout. It was good to start it back up again.
“It’s about inspiration and hope, giving the kids something to look up to. Teach them some other lessons. Listening, being on time, being sharp with things. I just want to give them some encouragement and basically some love.
“It was a good weekend for the kids.”
Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @MattTrowbridge. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Matt has covered sports for the Register Star for more than 30 years after previously working for papers in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City. He grew up on a farm in northwest Minnesota with six brothers and a sister. His four daughters all graduated from Rockford Public Schools.