Our friends in K-Falls took hospitality to a new level on day four. We were treated like royalty everywhere we went, mostly thanks to Antonio, who at 6-10 looks the part of the Trail Blazer despite his advancing years! I kid. He’s still about 10 years younger than Mutombo, but has wisely moved to a more leisurely line of work.

I have new respect for Antonio and for Michelle Butler, who are the face of our clinics throughout this week of the Make It Better Statewide Summer Tour, driven by Kia. Today we had about 50 kids – we were expecting 30 – and though I’m no coach, I stepped in to help guide the younger campers in passing drills.

I’m no expert on conditioning, but I suspect it’s bad when you need a break after 15 minutes of ‘defending’ seven-year-olds on layup drills, no? Though my tongue was hanging out of my mouth by the end of the clinic, I did experience the best of what our camp has to offer – the opportunity to bond with young people, and to vicariously live through the excitement on their faces.

As Antonio explained later in the afternoon, you always find 2 or 3 campers among your group who you quickly build a special rapport with. That bond gives you the energy you need to put your all into instructing and the patience you need for the listening-challenged. Kids like Tori, Bryce, Aaliyah – you spend the whole camp rooting for kids like that and remembering why we do what we do.

After a visit to our affiliate in K-Falls, we stuck around to have dinner at Gino’s, an Italian joint operated by friends of Dick Vardanega, our broadcasting VP/camp coach. We’ve done a lot of eating and drinking on this trip, but nothing has come close to the meal (and the great service) we enjoyed from Frannie and her crew! Stuffed like a Gino’s Stromboli, we waddled to our Kia Sedona and the bus for the drive to Medford - a drive, it should be noted, that can be completed in the exact time it takes to watch Caddyshack.

Summer Tour Stops: Eugene | Coos Bay | Roseburg | Klamath Falls | Trip 1 Homepage