Cam Scott shares what it means for him to give back with Back-to-School Weekend event
It was not that long ago Cam Scott was the kid walking the halls at Pleasant Hill Middle School in Lexington. But here he was now, back in the gym he started playing in all those years ago, giving back to the next generation.
With the new school year around the corner, Scott put on his first Back-to-School Weekend event. Alongside his family, former coaches and teammates, and friends, the South Carolina freshman guard hosted a basketball camp on Saturday for local middle schoolers.
When the idea came up, it was a no-brainer for Scott. Growing up, he had the opportunity to attend dozens of basketball camps as a kid. So to do the same for the others was an easy decision.
“It’s honestly big, just giving back to the community, especially where you come from,” Scott told GamecockCentral. “I walked these halls, went to school here for three years. Just being able to give back to the kids that are coming through the same pathway I came through, give them the same type of opportunities I had. Coming up, I played in a lot of camps, so just being in that camp environment, it’s honestly special to be around.”
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Camp attendees had the chance to work on their skills and even learn from Scott himself. Seeing how these opportunities helped him get to where he is now as a college athlete, Scott hopes the campers can gain valuable experience from something like this. But to do that, putting in the work is the key, he said.
“If you want to come in here and you wanted to show up just to show up, you’re really not going to get much from it,” he said. “But these kids (on Saturday), they came to work. You can obviously see it. They started picking up the energy a little bit. … Once they pick up their energy, you see that they got it going and got it flowing.”
By the time the four-hour event got underway, Scott, wearing a bright red t-shirt with his initials and camp logo, was already drenched in sweat from playing 1-on-1 with the kids.
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For his mother, Alisha Coles, who was watching off to the side, she was reminded of how he “finds value in where he came from.”
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“This school, this was his middle school where he first played basketball as a middle school athlete. So for him to be able to give his first camp back to the middle school kids where he started, I think that’s something that shows he wants to be there for the kids that are coming up behind him,” she said.
“So it’s not to takeaway from everything that he’s done at that high school level, but it’s kind of like, ‘This is where it started for me and these are the kids I know look to find that person they can look up to.’ And this is where it can all start. In South Carolina, you can start playing basketball at seventh grade. So as a seventh grader, you have somebody you see go to this school, do well. It just gives them somebody else to look up to, and I think it’s great for him.”
In addition to the skills camp, Scott will be having a bowling night for 3rd-5th grade students Sunday night. With this weekend already being a big success, he hopes to turn this into a yearly tradition of giving back to the community.
“That’s the goal right now,” Scott said. “We look at short-term goals right now, but we definitely got eyes open, we got minds open looking for other future opportunities that we can have in terms of just being here and stuff.”
