Camp of champs

By Katherine Waters

This article appeared originally in the Fall 2018 issue of  Frontiers Magazine. 

 

For the first time in its nearly 30-year history, Coach Gregg Nibert’s Camp of Champs basketball camp was held on SMC’s campus.

The summer camp, held each June and open to high school and middle school basketball teams across South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, needed to find a new location after Nibert’s retirement from Presbyterian College in 2017.

Camp of Champs is known for being the largest team camp in the Southeast, bringing in around 700 campers for two weeks. Campers begin playing games first thing in the morning, after breakfast and an optional devotional, and continue to play until after dinner, each playing a total of three games per day. They also have the chance to participate in a question-and-answer period with Nibert and hold smaller contests with the entire camp at the end of the day.

Many basketball teams are drawn to the camp because of the competition that it provides. Even rival teams, such as Dorman and Byrnes or Lexington and Irmo, have the opportunity to play against each other.

“We have championship winners and runners-up, so they want to come to camp to get better and to find good competition and good coaching,” explained Nibert. “That’s why we have the best competition in the Southeast.” The camp’s popularity also provides an opportunity for SMC to market itself to the campers who will be attending college in the near future. Nibert noted that the faculty and staff showed their excitement about the camp and worked to make its move to the campus successful.