WNBA player hosts camp

Atlanta’s new head coach of the girls’ varsity basketball team, Jim Elser, invited one of his former players to host an area-wide basketball camp for incoming third to twelfth graders on July 1, at Atlanta Middle School.

The former player was Shameka Christon who spent 12 years in the WNBA, four years at the University of Arkansas and won back-to-back high school titles under Coach Elser.

Christon brought plenty of basketball knowledge to help teach the area youth. In her time she’s not only played collegiately but has played pro ball and for an Olympic team.

The campers were taught the basics of basketball as well as dribble drills, shooting drills, proper ball handling, how to properly complete chest, bounce and overhead passes and had playful scrimmage games against one another.

The different age groups were taught at different times but Christon was very excited to get a chance to work with the youth in our area.

“I don’t get to hold as many camps as I’d like during the first part of summer because I have five travel teams in total which keeps me busy,” Christon said. “This is my second camp to host this summer and I’m very excited to be here alongside Coach Elser and the other coaches here today.”

When asked what she primarily wanted to get across to the campers during each two-hour class she replied, “My main focus to teach the kids during this camp is fundamentals or the basics. I think it’s very important especially when you have younger kids like third grade to fifth graders. I want to give them an idea of the foundation and teach them to have fun. You don’t want them so stressed they get turned off to the game early on.”

“You have to cater to your audience,” Christon continued. “I correct more with the older kids because at that stage of life they should have techniques down. I expect the older kids to have drive and determination. It’s mental because you should have the basics and fundamentals down by the time you reach high school.”

When asked what young athletes need to move forward well she said, “Be coachable, confident and dedicated. Work hard and stick to repetition. I started playing basketball in seventh grade because we didn’t have camps to go to.”

According to Christon things didn’t start out well early in her basketball playing during middle school.

“As a seventh grade student I wasn’t very good at all. I could get a rebound and put the shot back up and it would go over the backboard every time. I had a coach tell me I was awful and I’d never make it in basketball and it hurt my feelings,” Christon replied. “When I discussed it with my mom, Beverly Phillips, she didn’t go all-mama bear on the coach. She told me I have two options, ‘to work hard, get better and prove him wrong or just quit, but know if you quit you’re going to quit everything else for the rest of your life because you took the easy way out.’ So that was my motivation and in my eighth grade year I was averaging 26 points a game with seven rebounds and five steals.”

“At that point I was like ‘I’m going to the men’s NBA since the WNBA didn’t exist. You couldn’t tell me any different. My confidence was high but it was just getting in the gym and doing things repetitively,” Christon added. “I boosted my work ethic. Once I came back my ninth grade year I had moved to Hot Springs High School and I had an amazing year. The WNBA had been formed and that was my goal to make it to the WNBA and I’m going to make it.”

Fewer than two percent of NCAA student-athletes go on to be professional athletes.

That’s not a lot at all when you look at the number of student-athletes who partake in some kind of sports between high school and college.

Christon was one of those who fell into that percentile and followed through with her goal as she was selected by New York in the first round (fifth overall) of the 2004 WNBA Draft.

She also played with Chicago, San Antonio and Phoenix during her 12-year WNBA career.

Before that she helped lead her high school team at Hot Springs High School in Arkansas to back-to-back state championships while earning state championship MVP honors twice. She was also named Gatorade Player of the Year and earned Arkansas Player of the Year honors.

At the University of Arkansas, Christon was named SEC Player of the Year as a senior in 2004, was named First Team All-SEC, was named AP Third Team All-American and finished her collegiate career ranked second on Arkansas’ all-time scoring list.

She also racked up plenty of accolades during her first three years playing college ball and scored her 1,000th career point in 2003, becoming the 22nd player in Arkansas history – male or female – to accomplish the feat.

Christon won a Gold Medal with Team USA at the 2002 FIBA World Championships for Women in China. She additionally spent the WBNA off-seasons playing for teams in countries such as Russia, Poland, Spain, and Israel.

She wants kids to know that no matter what things seem like in the beginning, if you work hard and stay motivated you can do most anything.

She also talked about her time learning from Coach Elser and how he helped her prepare for the next level.

“What I learned from Coach Elser prepared me for so much. He always held all of his players accountable. He pushed me to be the best I could be and he pushed our team to be the best we could be and that’s why we had so much success,” Christon said. “He prepared me for my college coach who was tougher on us than Coach Elser and my college coach prepared me for the WNBA and Olympic coaches I’d play for who were really tough on me as well.”

“Apply what a coach is telling you. Don’t take the tone as a bad thing. Execute to the best of your ability what they are wanting you to do,” Christon replied, “Coach Elser really cared for his players. He picked up anyone who needed a ride to practice and bought us breakfast no matter how far we lived out. We had six a.m. practice and he would pick me up at five a.m. He would take us to college basketball camps. He really cares for his players but holds his players accountable and there is nothing wrong with that because when you get into the workforce you will be held accountable.”

When talking to the campers Christon said she dribbles 10 minutes a day and takes 400 shots because repetition is key.

Those words were echoed by Coach Elser as he said, “Stephen Curry is arguably the best shooter in the NBA and when asked the secret to his success his father told the media one word - repetition. Repetition or doing something several times can take your game up several levels.”

Elser knows something about coaching kids who struggled early on in their careers and helped turn things around.

“I started out as a football coach at Dardanelle High School in Arkansas where I coached for seven years and was asked to coach the girls’ basketball team because they were terrible at that time, and I had a love for basketball,” Elser said. “I learned a lot from the boys’ coach who was very successful and ran with it.”

Within four years of taking over the program the girls, led by Elser, were in the semifinals and in 1992 Dardanelle won the state overall championship.

Elser ended up at his alma mater Hot Springs the next season to help turn around a team that had won just six games in three years and had only seven players on the team.

Same outcome as before. Hot Springs reached the semis in three years and won back-to-back state titles beginning his fifth year there. skills through basketball. The most important thing for me is teaching these ladies the life skills they will need because the biggest game is after basketball. Fun comes from success, success comes from hard work and discipline,” Elser said. “Championships are nice, but watching kids grow as people is the most rewarding.”

Elser said he thought inviting Christon for a camp would be very beneficial and added the key aspects that made her a great fit for a WNBA team.

“Shameka was the most committed, the most coachable, the best team player and she had the best work ethic,” Elser said. “Anytime your best player has the four qualities you want, the rest will follow. I believe conveying that to kids from someone who has mastered it all is important.”

Through this camp the kids were taught the basics of basketball, but also learned life skills from someone who has personally overcome early failures and turned her dream into reality.