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Sacramento Kings stars Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic teamed up for another summer basketball camp
hosted at Folsom High School this past week. Childen aged 9-17 came by for a week long of basketball
drills, practices, as well as getting the opportunity to meet Peja and Vlade in the flesh. Vlade and
Peja even had a personal autograph session for all the campers, so each of the kids had a special
momento to remember the week by.
Each day, Vlade and Peja stopped by the camp to encourage youngsters, give some tips, speak to the
campers, and even play a little one-on-one to a lucky few who were selected.
Teamwork and self-confidence seemed to be the key emphasis that
these Kings were teaching, as well as some of the basic fundamentals
of basketball. Vlade and Peja also both
spoke about their native lands of Yugoslavia and Croatia, and what life is like for many of the
youths growing up there. Peja would hang out with the campers and talk to them while they all huddled
around the Folsom High gym and listened to many guest speakers. During the sessions with Vlade and
Peja, many kids were able to participate in some shooting drills, or challenge Vlade and Peja to some
shooting contests. On one such day, Peja was able to hit a shot from sitting down at about half court, as the crowd roared in approval.
Campers and parents alike seemed to be enamored with the Kings'
stars.
Ticha Penicheiro of the Sacramento Monarchs was able to stop by to answer questions, shoot some
hoops, and talk about her background from growing up in Portugal as well. Most questions were very
trivial in nature, like what's her favorite candy bar (for the record, it's Twix), and one 10-year
old wanted to know if she was single. She answered appropriately, "Yes... why, are you looking?" It was evident from the very
beginning that all of the kids were overcome with joy about meeting the NBA and WNBA stars, as well as enjoying a week-long basketball jam session.
The event was put together by Group Seven Children's Foundation, a non-profit charity whose aim is to
provide assistance to children from the isolation, poverty and displacement inherent to the break-up
of a country. Divac and seven other Yugoslavian basketball players have been raising money and
reaching out to communities for over a decade.
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