South Carolina women's basketball: Ashlyn Watkins hosted her second annual basketball camp over the weekend
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Ashlyn Watkins hosted her second annual basketball camp over the weekend. The camp was open to boys and girls of all ages, with a mornign session for elementary and middle school kids and an afternoon session for high school students.
Between the two sessions, Watkins talked about why she wanted to run her own camp.
“I love to give back to my community,” she said. “I’m at the high school that I attended, and the kids, they look up to me, seeing me on the court, and I just want to give back to them.”
Watkins wanted to hold the camp at Cardinal Newman, her alma mater, where she is something of a living legend. Her retired jersey hangs on a wall behind one of the baskets. There are other relics, like her McDonald’s All-American jersey, scattered around the gym.
“There’s a reason I want to do this at Cardinal Newman, because it’s my old high school, and they always looked out for me,” Watkins said. “They always worked in my best interest. So I always want to give back to them and show them that I appreciate them.”
Watkins is often soft-spoken, but on the basketball court surrounded by kids, she was in her element. She interacted easily with the campers and said her goal was to make everyone feel comfortable.
“One kid wanted to go home so I tried to help him,” Watkins said. “I said if he beat me one on one, if he could take the ball from me, he’s the best player in the world. He loved that.”
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Watkins was proud that girls and boys came to her camp, saying it was proof of the growth of women’s basketball.
“It means a lot,” Watkins said. “It shows that not only little girls look up to me, it’s little boys as well. Little boys see women’s basketball as not just something that’s not important, like not an important sport, but just as much as they see men’s college basketball, men’s players that are doing big right now.”
Adhel Tac helped out coaching the campers, and Watkins praised Tac’s supportiveness for her teammates. They signed autographs and posed for pictures, and then toward the end of the morning session they took questions. One child asked if Angel Reese was the toughest player Watkins had guarded.
“No,” she said. That got a big laugh (mostly from parents) before Watkins explained that Utah’s Alissa Pili was the toughest player she had guarded.
Later, Watkins explained what she wanted everyone to learn from the camp.
“Take away that they can be just as good as me,” she said. “Just put the effort in and put the work in, and you’ll be good. You can go to a great college like I go to and maybe win a championship one day.”
