LAWRENCE, Mass. – Mount Ida College men's basketball head coach Ben Davis recently presented as a guest coach at the Smart Hoops Clinic, a five-week summer camp that provides academic and basketball skills to youth at the Lawrence YMCA.
The camp, run by Lawrence High School coach Ray Nunez, has for several years provided 7th through 9th graders a place to spend their summers, develop academically, and learn basketball skills, while also providing lunch, all at no cost to the attendees, who also receive a free membership to the YMCA for the summer.
In his three years as Mount Ida's head coach, Davis has formed a strong relationship with Nunez, and with the student-athletes from Lawrence, who consistently attend Mount Ida basketball games and tour the campus. That relationship not only resulted in his guest coaching stint this year, but helped to convince incoming freshman Kevin Vanderhorst, a 3.9 GPA student at Lawrence High School and one of 20 staff members at this year's camp, to decide to attend Mount Ida and play for Davis this coming fall.
"Over the course of the past few years our coaching staff at Mount Ida has built a strong relationship with the Lawrence coaching staff, specifically Coach Ray Nunez. When Coach Nunez invited me to speak at the Smart Hoops Camp, which makes such a positive impact on the lives of the kids of the city of Lawrence, I was more than happy to do so," said Davis.
Davis imparted both basketball and life knowledge to the 120 campers, running a 45-minute drills and skills clinic, and talking about what it takes to be a student-athlete at the college level, stressing how important grades and character are. "These are the types of kids we look at in our recruiting process," said Davis. "It's not all about being just a good basketball player."