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- WVC Athletics and Wenatchee Bighorns partner to host Nike Basketball Camp
WVC Athletics and Wenatchee Bighorns partner to host Nike Basketball Camp
July 31, 2025
Media Contacts:
Shawn Cooprider, Wenatchee Bighorns owner/operator, cooprider@wenatcheebighorns.com
Marcine Miller, Executive Director, Public Information Office, 509-682-6582, mmiller2@wvc.edu
Wenatchee Valley College Athletics and the Wenatchee Bighorns partnered this July
to host a Nike Basketball Camp to help young athletes sharpen their skills.
Eighty children ages 8 to 15 attended the five-day camp, which was held in the Student
Recreation Center and Smith Gym on the WVC Wenatchee campus. The camp included daily
strength and conditioning activities, shooting and dribbling drills, gameplay tactics,
and scrimmaging.
The camp was designed to help players of all abilities develop athletically, refine
fundamental basketball skills, and enhance their skillsets at the post, wing, or guard
positions. “Nike heard of our successful program with the Bighorns, providing to the youth in
our community, and asked if we would co-sponsor camps in the NCW,” said Shawn Cooprider,
owner and operator of the Bighorns and organizer of the Nike Basketball Camp. “For
our inaugural camp, I think it went great, and we are looking forward to additional
camps in the future.”
Several coaches from the community assisted in the event: Cris Cromartie, Bighorns’
general manager; Matthew Riley, Bighorns’ head coach; Braden Draggoo, camp co-director
and coach; Jordan Highland, WVC Knights men’s basketball coach; Joe Barnes, Eastmont
High School head girls coach; Julius Rowe, youth basketball coach; Bighorns players
Nick Fleming, Tavin Cummings, Kobi Johnson, and Virgil Fields; and Knights basketball
players Eme Henry and Eamon Monohand.
“It’s good for the kids to see and be around the players. That kind of stuff is priceless,”
Highland said. He added that a seventh-grade camp attendee asked him for a tryout.
Highland, who is working on recruiting athletes for the Knights men’s basketball program,
does want to recruit local players. “It’s good to see kids early, see how they improve,”
he said.
Eme Henry, a WVC sophomore, has been coaching some of the youngest players in the
camp and said that it has been a good experience for him. “You make them happy, you
make them want to be a player,” he said.
He noted that many of the younger players want to make friends first. Henry tells
them, “Take your friend, be partners, and work on basketball.” He encourages them
to support each other and cheer each other on. “They learn together, they have fun
together,” he said.
The Bighorns would like to thank business community partners, Draggoo Financial and
Weinstein Beverage, for their participation in making the camp a success. Discussions
with Nike on future camp dates are in progress, and there may be an opportunity for
another camp this fall, Cooprider said.
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