Local youth from Harrisburg compete well at the Buckeye Prep Elite Showcase...

Tim Kater, Tyrece Little and Kareem Oden

This past weekend, three of the young guys from the Harrisburg area took a trip to Columbus, Ohio to participate in the INVITE ONLY Buckeye Prep Elite Showcase.....  This event was probably the most talented event we've seen thus far as their were lots of future Division 1 and probably future NBA players in the gym all at the same time....







Saturday was filled with Ohio North vs Ohio South Allstar games in which they played in each grade from 6th through 12th....   They capped it off with an Ohio vs Michigan game in which Ohio won by 25 points....  



Ex Ohio State All American pg Scoonie Penn

After that, the kids all got together as they sat and listened to a few positive words by ex Ohio State All American Scoonie Penn....  Scoonie was the pg on the 1999 Final Four Buckeye team and played over in Europe for 11 years....  He talked about kids having a positive attitude and being coachable.....


Then the campers were put into Stations...   The camp was sold out with 380 players and each player was broken down into one of the 8 stations that were available...   Each Station was taught with a HIGH level of intensity as the coaches really tried to pay attention to detail....

After two hours of stations, the guys were ready to call it a night as they had to be back the very next morning by 8am to warm  up and get ready for games....

CBS Sports Clark Kellog

Sunday morning began with lots of warm up drills and then a pep talk by CBS Sports Clark Kellog....  Clark gave the kids greta information on what it takes to be successful, what coaches are looking for and why events like this are important....  He's an Ohio native himself and stated he loves to have the opportunity to give back to the youth...



After Clark was done, it was game time....  The talent was unreal as there were all types of biggs in this gym...  You had 6'8 guards, 7'0 centers who could shoot the threes, little fast guards, you name it....   Here's a little breakdown on how the kids from Harrisburg performed...

Kareem Oden (Emmanuel Baptist 11th grader) -  Kareem did a very good of running his team at camp...  He has the ability to get in the lane and finish, even with contact...   Once he was able to get past his defender, he made plays...  As Kareem continues to improve his strength and outside shoot, it will be very difficult to contain him....  He had to go up against some of the best guards in the State of Ohio and he held his own....  Never backed down and competed well.... 

Tyrece Little (Emmanuel Baptist 8th grader) - Tyrece had his hands full as the 8th division was extremely talented...  Tyrece  had the opportunity to face two of the top guards in the State of Ohio in Tommy Schmock and Tyrell Ajain....  He did very well on both ends of the floor as Little is the type of guy who gives you a little bit of everything....  He scored points, rebounded well from the guard position, had steals and a ton of hustle plays....  Little seems to just be getting more comfortable scoring the ball and once he gets a better feel for it, he may be ready to take his game to another level....  Little was also nominated for the 8th grade Allstar game.....


Tim Kater Jr. (East Pennsboro 7th grader) - Tim was the only 7th grader in the 8th grade division and he had to go up against some tough players....  Tim who is used to hitting the outside shot was a little off, but like a real shooter, he kept shooting the ball....  It paid off because he ended up winning the ball game for his team during his last game...  Score was tied at 41 with 35 seconds left and Kater pops a 25 footer from the right wing...  He then got a fast break layup as time expired and they won by 5 points....  He was a very good playmaker and played with high IQ for the weekend....


Overall the boys had a great experience and look forward to going there again....  Many thanks go out to Rob Taylor and his staff for showing Harrisburg, PA some love....  Can't wait to meet up again...

Coach Little