VALDOSTA –– Much like other sports, the game of basketball is a brotherhood.

The Lowndes Vikings varsity boys basketball team along with teams from Valdosta High, Cook, Brooks County and Ware County came together for a day camp sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes on Friday.

Of course, the teams battled against each other on the court, but also came together to experience life coaching, college application training, athletic training and spiritual empowerment –– tools to help each player succeed well beyond basketball.

“Irregardless of basketball being included or not, one of the things I told the guys this morning is they’re going to be men and citizens of this community far longer than basketball players,” Lowndes head basketball coach Reshon Benjamin said. “We can implement lifelong skills and lifelong tools to help progress them in that area. Then, we’ll have the athlete. I just relish having opportunities like this to speak to the heart of the man more so than the basketball player.”

Poet Langston Hughes once wrote, ‘Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly’.

Following the camp, players and coaches were visited by Pastor Ernest Jackson of The Rock Church in Valdosta. Jackson imparted a message of the importance of dreams and the power of uplifting others.

Jackson then led a prayer before the players and coaches were treated to hamburgers, hot dogs and other refreshments.

Though team camps typically center around the spirit of competition, providing substance outside the lines was what Benjamin and the FCA wanted to promote during Friday’s event.

“It’s very important –– I think that’s where we need to go,” Southeast Georgia FCA Director Bobby Willis said. “It doesn’t need to be all about basketball. What these kids got today will help them in basketball, but it will also help them a lot more in life. They got life skills today, not just basketball. In turn, you make a better person out of somebody through these life skills classes they had today. It’ll make them better basketball players because you teach them work ethic, teamwork and what life’s about.”

On the court, Lowndes’ A team defeated Brooks 50-36 as both teams’ varsity squads went at each other. For former Valdosta assistant-turned Brooks head coach Darious Dennard, Friday’s camp illustrated the process of promoting team-building and sacrifice as he moves through his first offseason.

“Offseason –– it’s a process,” Dennard said smiling. “I know in the media, you hear a lot about, ‘It’s a process’, but it’s truly a process. I have a lot of young guys –– a lot of guys that have not played much basketball, so we’re trying to build that family, that camaraderie to have them playing hard for each other first and then focus on the Xs and Os of basketball and instilling playing hard and the principles I want to do as a first-time head coach. 

“We’re definitely growing, laying the foundation. I told my guys, I use the analogy of cooking dinner –– you have to get your ingredients together, but we’re at the point where we’re starting from the ground. We’ve got to plant the seed, get the crop, go out and pick our vegetables, then we’ve got to put the meal together. By the end of the season, we’ll be eating a fine dinner.”

Dennard, a former assistant men’s basketball coach at Middle Georgia State University, loves the unique nature of the Lowndes team camp under Benjamin, whom he calls “a man of great character.” Dennard feels the camp best exemplifies of how to instill morals and values in student-athletes through the vessel of basketball.

While most teams make a routine of competing in summer tournaments and attending a bevy of team camps, Dennard takes a much more conservative approach to the summer season.

“I love it –– being at the college level, I’ve seen basketball be used for a lot of great things and I’ve seen basketball use kids,” Dennard said. “They put their all into basketball and they forget about everything outside of it. So I think this camp really hammered home that point of…this game can be great for you if you use it and don’t let it use you. One day, it’s gonna go flat. One day, you’re not gonna play anymore, whether it’s when you want to or injuries come when you don’t want them to. 

“Me personally, I’m not big on playing a whole lot of games during the summer. We’ve gotten to the point where it gets kind of watered down and kids revert back to bad habits. At Brooks, we haven’t played as many games as the other kids, but that’s because I want to make sure we have a strong, solid foundation of what we want to do and that’s changing the culture and going forward. We’ve been working hard this summer, so to come here and play the game but get the other stuff, that was just the best situation for us.”

An important aspect Benjamin enjoyed most about his first team camp was that by the end of the day, players from all schools involved were sitting side-by-side, eating and enjoying each other’s company.

According to Benjamin, the us versus them mentality is something that has its place between the lines of competition. However, accepting a role in the brotherhood of basketball and embracing fellowship, Benjamin says, is critical.

“It’s very critical,” Benjamin said. “I learned this a long time ago –– I like words and in Latin, the word communis means to share. When you take the word communis, that’s the root word for a community in which we all are sharing something. So with this vision, with this dream that we all have, we’re all on the same page and we’re all on the same team. Just because I have Lowndes across my chest or Cook County or Brooks County or Valdosta, the optimal goal is still the same. We all, as coaches and players, share the same goal, which is to not only win, but use winning as an analogy on how to win for life.”

Friday’s camp wrapped up the summer schedule for Benjamin and the Vikings. While the team won’t have any team practices due to GHSA rules, Benjamin will begin hosting individual workouts for players by position as well as continuing their weekly hour-long weightlifting sessions with Lowndes strength and conditioning coach Curtis Mattair every Monday and Wednesday.

With team camp out of the way, Benjamin is excited about what the rest of the summer holds leading into the season.

“We’ve definitely had some highs and we’ve had some lows as well,” Benjamin said of his first offseason as head coach. “The biggest part of what we’re doing right now is getting the guys to understand that we have to do this together. We have some guys that are highly talented as individuals but you can only go so far being an individual. It takes a whole team. From what I’ve assessed thus far, we’re still working on the defense, still trying to implement the offense. 

“Again, just because I’m a senior and I’ve been playing with this guy the last three years or I’m a sophomore and I’ve been playing with this guy since eighth grade, it takes a collective unit playing one style together under one heartbeat and that’s how you become a winning team.”

In addition to providing encouraging words and wisdom, Willis helped man the smoker to grill up the hamburgers and hotdogs for the teams to enjoy at the conclusion of camp.

Willis listened attentively to Jackson’s sermon on the importance of dreams. As a former coach himself, he understands a coach’s role in the cultivation of young adults. Speaking life into a student-athlete and supporting their dreams, Willis says, is one of the tenets FCA holds near and dear. Much like Benjamin, Willis and the FCA aim to continue building players into something bigger than a game.

“This is one important thing about coaching to me, to not break a kid’s dream,” Willis said. “Do all you can to help him reach his dreams because without dreams, you go nowhere. Every individual has different dreams. It’s very seldom that a person has the same ones. What we want to do as FCA is teach these kids to have the proper dreams and go about them the right way. What went on today is going a long way toward that. God has been in this. Coach Benjamin has done a great job lining it up. We want to, this year and years from now, to build young men. It’s not about basketball…we want to build strong, young men. If it makes them better basketball players, that’s a plus.”