BY BRITTNEY BENNETT
EDITOR
TAHLEQUAH – On Saturday, August 3, Cherokee and former WNBA star Angel Goodrich will host a one-day basketball camp called “Back to Basics” at the United Keetoowah Band Wellness Center. It will provide 20 boys and girls from ages 8 to 18-years-old with the opportunity to receive one-on-one basketball instruction and mentoring.
“I’ve always wanted to do this, ever since I was younger,” said Goodrich. “I want my camp to go back to the basics and the fundamentals. Camps have kind of strayed away from simple things, like dribbling for instance. How can you even get down the court if you can’t dribble the ball? We’ll work on these types of things together.”
The day will be split into two sessions, with a morning session from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. for children 8 to 13-years-old. The afternoon session will be for children 14 to 18-years-old and run from 1 to 4 p.m.
Registration is $20 and open to the first 20 applicants regardless of tribal affiliation by filling out a registration form at www.ukb-nsn.gov/specialevents. Applicants must RSVP to the website by August 1 and bring payment on the day of the event.
Once all 20 slots are filled, the camp will place children on a wait list should a spot become available or if the decision is made to host another camp.
Goodrich currently works at Kenwood Public Schools as a teaching assistant and assistant coach. She graduated from Sequoyah High School in Tahlequah before attending the University of Kansas from 2009 to 2013. There she played point guard and became the school’s all-time leader in assists with 771 and became the 26th Jayhawk to score over 1,000 career points.
Upon graduation she was drafted in the third round with the 29th overall pick to the Tulsa Shock, where she played for two seasons before spending a year with the Seattle Storm in 2016.
Goodrich said she wanted to give children the opportunity to learn from her experience by making the Back to Basics camp affordable.
“We’d go to camps when I was younger and it was very expensive. You don’t really see a place for kids to go around here in Tahlequah like a YMCA and learn. If you want to go to a gym, you still have to pay a membership,” she said.
Goodrich also wants the children that attend Back to Basics to walk away not only with better basketball skills, but life skills as well.
“This is also a life skills camp,” she said. “We’ll sit down sometimes and talk about things like how to listen and how grades are important. Grades were always important for my family because we couldn’t play if we got lower than a B. Student comes before athlete.”
Goodrich practices what she preaches, first as an honor roll student at Sequoyah High School before being named to the Academic All-Big Team four years in a row at the University of Kansas.
“There’s basketball, but you can also teach a lot through sports,” she said. “I know this is only a day, but it’s a day where a kid could be out doing something stupid instead or they’re not at home playing video games. It’s all about that and phones today and kids aren’t getting out there actually enjoying the sun and outside playing. As long as they go home with one thing, that’s what matters.”
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