Resurrection Eighth-grader

“Game Up Basketball Skills Camp” began a little over a year ago as a dream for Jossie Hudson, an eighth-grader at Evansville’s Resurrection Catholic School – to provide a free basketball camp for children from Evansville public schools who normally would not be able to attend basketball camps due to financial restraints on their families.  

Jossie’s sponsor/dad, Carey Hudson, taught at Harwood and Cedar Hall schools for a combined nine years, and is currently the freshman counselor at Reitz High School.  Jossie has been taught that, no matter what your circumstances, if you keep busy with something that keeps you active and builds character you will have a greater chance of success. 

A Youth Resources Make a Difference Grant made Jossie’s dream a reality by helping to fund the basketballs needed to run the camp and give away at its conclusion.  Conversations began in September with Cedar Hall’s Assistant Principal Joe Schlosser and the after school coordinator, Ashley Conkling.  The first camp’s sessions occurred on Jan. 27and Feb. 3, 6, 10, 25 and 26. 

Jossie and her parents asked six of her friends who also love basketball to help.: Ben Ubehlor and Nicholas Harpenau, also from Resurrection; Anna Bury and Hunter Taylor from Holy Redeemer; Olivia Effinger from Corpus Christi; and Alaina Spahn of St. Wendel. Together with Jossie, they taught 28 youngsters in grades three through five the basics of basketball.  

Jossie’s goals were simple and direct:

1)    To work with a school like Cedar Hall. Her dad had worked at Harwood and Cedar Hall so she was familiar with some of the challenges they face with limited resources. 

2)    To work with an after school program to eliminate transportation issues and hardships on the family.

3)  To focus would be on children in grades 3-5.  Jossie started playing basketball in kindergarten,  and wanted to help kids get an early while not having too much variance in skill levels.

4)  To have 20-40 children at each session. She wanted to help as many kids as possible.

5)  To teach basic ball-handling skills and drills – making them easy to remember so the kids could continue to work on their own.

6) To work on fundamental shooting basics!  It’s the best place to start and what the pros use.

7)  To provide a basketball to each of the children at the end of camp so they could continue to work on their new skills.

Probably the most surprising thing to the young coaches the first day of camp was the way the kids were dressed and their footwear. Most campers had on their school uniforms and street shoes, and truly were just happy to be there and be part of the camp.

First-day tears flowed from one of the campers as she struggled to do some of the drills and wanted to give up. With a lot of encouragement she worked through each drill and had a big smile on her face when she left. 

Every young coach brought something special with them. Each possessed motivation, inspiration and encouragement.  They would support, calm and sooth, engage or provide the necessary challenge to get campers moving or working on a skill.  Every day brought something new out of each of them.

One of the Cedar Hall teachers stopped by towards the end of camp.  She said, “Smiles?  Smiles!  I didn’t know some of these kids could smile. I have never seen them smile in all the time I have taught them. What confidence this is giving them!” 

When camp ended, Jossie offered a few words of encouragement, “Work hard in class to make good grades.  You can’t play if your grades are poor!  Be a good sport, practice hard, eat healthy and take care of your body.  Stay hydrated!  Be kind to others.  Basketball can be all you want it to be if you work hard enough and have a good attitude.  We are all very proud of how hard you worked at the camp. Keep up the good work.”

Jossie and her family are truly grateful to the volunteer coaches and their families for being involved, supportive and encouraging to everyone, and helping this vision become a reality. 

Jossie and others also completed a clothing drive to get some of the campers replacement school uniforms.  They collected and donated approximately 50 pants/shorts and 60 polos, to be distributed to the children as needed. 

Anyone wishing to make clothing donations can do so through EVSC’s clothing bank, “Hangers.”  Khaki, black and brown pants; solid-color polos and crew-neck sweatshirts, and socks and underwear are always in need. The Message thanks Tracey Hudson for providing the information for this story, and the photos.