Former Red Raider star Jarrett Culver returns home to host second annual basketball camp
No matter where Jarrett Culver goes, his heart will always be in Lubbock.
The former Texas Tech basketball standout and current NBA guard will return to his native Lubbock from July 18-21 to host the second annual Jarrett Culver Basketball Camp. The camp will take place at the Apex Event Center at 7806 County Road 7050 and is open to all kids from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Kids from kindergarten to the 5th grade will start the camp from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., followed by kids from 6th-8th grade from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. 9th-12th graders will cap off the day with an open gym session from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The camp is held through the Culver Foundation, dedicated to helping support youth in the Lubbock community. That aspect of helping kids from his hometown grow is one of the main reasons Culver comes back to host his camp.
“This is very important for me and my family,” Culver said. “Being from Lubbock, I’ve always wanted to come back and do something like this, help out the kids, and give them the knowledge that I’ve had. It’s a blessing to be able to do it.”
Culver held his first basketball camp last summer in Lubbock, with around 600 kids participating. He expects the same number of kids this year, with a possible slight increase to about 650-700 kids.
To help with the camp, Culver’s older brothers, Trey and J.J., will train campers alongside some of Jarrett’s former high school and college coaches. He’s even brought in NBA coaches in the past, most notably Max Lefevre, a player development associate for the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team that drafted Culver sixth overall in the 2019 NBA Draft.
Culver grew up attending basketball camps in Lubbock, crediting them with helping him learn the necessary skills to become a great basketball player. Now, Culver wants to pay it back, as he hopes to teach campers the skills he learned while he was a kid.
“I'm looking to teach the kids to be able to come out to improve their skills,” Culver said. “When I was a kid growing up, there's a lot of skill work that goes into these camps and you get better from there. We want to just get them to get better at basketball, improve their skills, whether it's shooting or dribbling. We have all types of drills to help in every single area of basketball.”
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In addition, Culver wants to empower the campers and make them better people in life. Helping kids grow not just as basketball players, but as human beings, has been a theme with Culver and his foundation.
In the past, the Culver Foundation has held a turkey drive during Thanksgiving, a gift giveaway to local hospital patients and fundraisers to help support community programs in Lubbock. The Foundation is even giving out scholarships to kids who can’t afford to attend the camp.
Culver’s humanitarian approach to giving back is no different with his camp. He wants the campers to learn lessons they can take off the court. To do this, he collabs with various Lubbock businesses and organizations to teach kids ways to improve their physical and mental health.
Last year, Culver brought in a nutritionist from United Supermarkets to discuss healthy eating and a child specialist from Covenant Healthcare to teach campers how to decrease stress and anxiety. The same is expected this year, with Culver wanting campers to learn as many off-the-court lessons as they do on the court.
“We don’t just want them to be a better basketball player. We want them to be a better person in life as well,” Culver said. “That’s one of our main goals. We want to provide things that make people want to live their life the right way.”
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When Culver comes home, he wants to give back. With this camp, he hopes to do that by helping improve campers’ basketball skills, teaching them life lessons, and above all, giving them a chance to have fun.
“I hope (the campers) leave with an experience that they got better not only as a basketball player, but as a person,” Culver said. “We want them to have fun. A lot of times, we get caught up in basketball and don’t enjoy it. You gotta have fun with it. I want them to have an amazing time, so this is something that we keep doing.”
JARRETT CULVER BASKETBALL CAMP
When: 9-11:30 a.m. K-5th grade, 2 to 4:30 p.m. 6th-8th grade, 7-8:30 p.m. 9th-12th grade.; Monday-Thursday for boys and girls
Where: Apex Event Center, 7806 County Road 7050, Lubbock, Texas
Cost: $300 per camper
Notable: Registration closed on July 15 at 11:59 p.m.
More info: Visit www.jarrettculvercamps.com
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Former Texas Tech star Jarrett Culver returns to host basketball camp
