Thursday marked the end of the 2012 Viking Summer Basketball Camp, with the final session ending just after 12:30 p.m. on the floor of Bob Ward Gymnasium in Cameron.

“We are very excited about the number we had for this camp,” said Union Pines boys’ head hoops coach and camp director Nick Boney. “We had about 85 kids this year, which was around the same number we had last summer. I feel like it was a great camp and although it is something that we started just a summer ago, hopefully it can become a real tradition and grow over time.”

Each of the four camp days ran from 8:30 a.m. through 12:30 p.m.

At the start of each day, campers assembled for a large group meeting where Boney would address the expectations for that particular session.

Then the camper went into individual skills work, where current Viking players helped instruct them at one of five stations including passing, defense, shooting, ball-handling and rebounding.

“All of my returning varsity players from last season served as counselors at this camp and I think Coach (John) Lewkowicz had eight or nine of his Lady Viking girls as counselors,” Boney said. “To me, having that type of involvement from our Union Pines student-athletes is an integral part of the camp, because for the little kids those Vikings are the ones they are going to come out to see play.

“So seeing our basketball players serve as ambassadors for the Union Pines athletics through interaction with campers was a great feeling. Some of the older campers are preparing to play here soon at Union Pines but the younger kids are going to come watch games and they are going to see Matthew Maness, Tyler Packer, Malik Crawford and all those other Viking players that were helping them in skill sessions during the camp.”

Aside from spending time on the court, campers got the opportunity on each of the four days to listen to a different guest speaker.

Travis Fortune, a longtime former teammate and cousin of Boney’s, spoke on the first day and then Sandhills Community College men’s head basketball coach Mike Apple, who guided the Flyers to an NJCAA Division III national title last season, spoke on day two.

Central Carolina Community College assistant men’s basketball coach Brain Hurd was the day-three speaker, while 2010 graduate and former Lady Viking basketball standout Alisha Mosley closed the camp out with a speech on Thursday.

“After each of our four speakers where finished,” Boney said, “we would reconvene for another meeting where I would give the campers a personal lesson and then after that we had a different game we played every day to allow the kids a chance to earn awards.

“One day we played knockout (a shooting game) within each of the different groups and each of those winners then vied for the top spot for the camp.”

In closing Boney again stressed how much of a success he felt the camp was. He also took time to acknowledge what he called a “tremendous support staff.”

“Coach Lewkowicz along with coaches Eric Marion, Chad Chisholm and David Pope as well as my father-in-law Henry Douglas, all did an outstanding job of running this camp for me,” said Boney. “That in turned allowed me to devote most of my time to the overall big picture and I am grateful to each of them for the support they provided.”

Contact F.W. Manning II at frankwm2@gmail.com.