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The Oak Mountain High School basketball program gave back to the community and molded young Eagles into better athletes at the GOOM Basketball Camp from June 23-26. (Reporter photos/Tyler Raley)

By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

NORTH SHELBY – As the clock struck noon for four days in the middle of June, numerous kids sat in lines inside the gym at Oak Mountain High School, listening to the closing remarks of their day of camp.

Just a couple of minutes later, they all stood up in excitement, and with the sound of a whistle, each kid shouted “Ready,” and got into a basketball stance before leaving for the day with smiles on their faces.

The younger Eagles of the Oak Mountain community had all the reason for doing so as they participated in the GOOM Basketball Camp from June 23-26 at Oak Mountain High School.

With around 105 kids attending the camp in 2025, the week saw a lot of excitement in Oak Mountain varsity boys head basketball coach Joel Floyd’s third camp at the school.

“Honestly, this is like our favorite week of the summer,” Floyd said. “We work together as a team with practice and team camps, but our chance to be able to work with the young guys of our community and give back is so important for our guys, but also for our community and growing the game of basketball.”

Throughout the week, campers were able to work on all fundamentals of the game, whether it was dribbling, shooting or defensive drills.

Each day, the kids also had a theme to follow that they tied into each activity they did, including putting in hard work, having positive energy and being a good teammate. According to Floyd, the goals of the themes were to not only lead the kids to be good players, but better people.

In addition, Floyd was helped out by his assistant coaches and varsity players, all of whom helped to teach campers as young as rising kindergarteners to as old as rising sixth graders.

To him, allowing his players to step into the coaching realm will help them to become better learners and athletes as the season gets going, getting them to realize more about the game.

“If you want to know if you know how to do something or not, teach it,” Floyd said. “That’s what they get to learn. They’re seeing the struggles of trying to get somebody to learn it, but then it makes them think about how we do things a little bit more and have a better understanding of how and why we do the things that we do.”

Floyd exclaimed that his favorite part of each year is seeing the rising kindergarteners get cheered on and how much fun they have, as it makes it a rewarding experience for all involved.

In turn, it helps the staff to continually have a better turnout in the years to come, and as the camp continues to grow in the future, it will only help the growth that program wants to achieve.

“That’s the goal is to try to get that involvement and consistent involvement and us to be able to have our hands on them early and work with them, so that by the time they get to us, we just keep adding to the things that we’re doing and we don’t have to worry about starting over. It’s just add as we go,” Floyd said.

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