3 Peat CHAMPIONS

Earlier this month, Joshua's team played in 3 tournaments in 3 weeks. They came home with 1st place trophies for all 3 and were undefeated each week! Congratulations Joshua and the DAWGS!

August 15th-16th "To The Hoop" tourney, 4th grade division.


August 8th-9th "Fast Break" tourney, 4th-5th grade division.

August 1st-2nd "Fast Break" tourney, 4th grade division.

Say CHEESE!!

Can you guess why Joshua is smiling so wide? No more braces! He's had his braces for approximately 9 1/2 months total. He used to have a Class III cross bite, or "underbite". Now, he has a perfect bite and a great smile! During the 9 1/2 months he had many restrictions...no caramels or sticky candies, no gum, no popcorn, etc.etc. The first thing he wanted after we left the orthodontist was gum! He was gum happy for about a week straight. Yeah! No more braces!!

Lebron James Kings Academy Basketball Camp

Joshua had the opportunity to attend the Lebron James King's Academy Basketball camp on the UC San Diego Campus on July 24-28th. The camp was from 9am to 9pm (sometimes later). Some people told us that it wouldn't be worth it and some questioned sending our child to a "celebrity camp" for various reasons.


My expectation of the camp was that Lebron would be there. There were no promises made other than that. No promises of other NBA players. Just that Lebron would be there. But what did that mean? We had heard in his past camps, he was there every day. But would that be the case? From a parent standpoint, all I wanted was for him to be there so Joshua could see him up close and personal. Fom a coach’s stand point, I just wanted them to be organized and have basketballs there.


Note: Joshua is Lebron's #1 fan - so to see his "idol" is like a dream come true. And isn't that why we parents are here? To help them realize their dreams?

To see the wonder on their faces when seeing their idol up close - PRICELESS!!!


The "King"

First day was registration - And Lebron was there to welcome everyone. Points earned for showing up the first day.



Mo Williams (Lebron’s teammate on the Cavs) was there too.



Anyhow, as a coach - I wasn't expecting much in terms of learning new skills, but I figured in a span of about 5 hours of basketball (time taken out for lunch, dinners and breaks), they'd go through some drills. But, for me - Joshua was not there to learn a new skill. If he picked something up along the way, then that'd be wonderful.

They had a huge staff of coaches - so that made me feel good. Each team consisted of a coach and about 10 players. Good Ratio. Coaches were mostly former coaches and current and former college players. Joshua’s coach played in both JR College and College. Didn’t catch where – but that really doesn’t matter, does it?

King's Academy Coaches.

They started the day off with warm-ups and ball handling drills. Throughout the day they played 5-on-5, 3-on-3 and 1-on-1 games along with having free throw and hotspots contests. And I know there was defense drills mixed in there. They also got coaching on some team offense (ball side screens, and rolling to the basket) and team defense (help side). But a large part of the time was playing the 5-on-5, 3-on-3 and 1-on-1 games.

Good or bad? For Joshua, this turned out to be good. Now, I could take the negative route and think "well, we paid this much money for him to learn, not play games...", but here's what I saw.

I saw Joshua have to...one more time...HAVE TO...learn how to play with players he just met, players from different backgrounds. Players from different cities...East Coast in the house! He had to learn what to do to earn their respect. Joshua is not a ball hog, and he's a team player first. So, when a few players on his team weren't passing him the ball, it bothered him. But after a short talk – he knew what he had to do.

He got more aggressive on defense, he fought for more rebounds than I ever have seen him fight for – and he’s not blessed with height. But the fact is he got more aggressive, and now understood what he was capable of doing. And, as a result – he made more things happen for his team, he scored some baskets, and the other players on his team began to realize his value and by the last day of camp, Joshua had the ball in his hands more. And to me as a coach, that was worth the price of admission.

Back to Lebron…he was there EVERYDAY. Didn’t necessarily interact with ALL of the kids, but when you have kids spread out at four different spots on campus, it’s tough to be in all of those places at once. On the very first day of camp, Lebron was passing through and watching Joshua's group do some drills. After Joshua completed his drills, Lebron James walked up to him and rubbed Joshua's head! That was one of the highlights of the day for Joshua. I mean, he didn't rub any other kid's heads! Lebron played in a scrimmage every night, (except one) and the kids all got to sit on the floor courtside to get a great view of the action. Mo Williams played in two of the scrimmages.

The camp was organized for the most part. The camp organizers had huge help from the UCSD athletic department – so there wasn’t a whole lot of chaos…which is VERY POSSIBLE with 600+ kids and their parents under one roof.

On the last day, the kids got to have one item autographed by Lebron, and the autograph was authenticated by Upper Deck. Joshua chose to have an Official NBA ball signed (an early bday present from Grandma and Bumps). He was able to hand it to Lebron for signing, so another close encounter.



Authentic Autograph!!
Also on the last day, individual and team camp awards were given. If I had to guess, there were maybe a total of 100 plaques given out. This was to a pool of 600+ kids. Joshua was chosen by the coaches to receive the “Most Improved” award for his age group, which consisted of around 100 kids. There was only one of these awards given per age group, so we are very proud of him! But the important part was Lebron presented the plaque – so a hand shake from “The King” himself was a great way to cap off the day!!

Each camper was given a King’s Academy T-Shirt, a team photo with Lebron, all the Vitamin Water and SMART Water they could drink at the camp, as well as a personal evaluation from their coach and the one autographed item.

Of course Academy Gear was sold, and Joshua HAD TO have one of everything!

Overall, it was absolutely worth it. Not only did Joshua get to play the sport he loves, be with a few of his friends and meet his idol…but we, as a family, were able to enjoy a week at a beautiful resort (Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines), no cooking or cleaning, and even got to enjoy Sea World and Legoland with the boys! On the last day of camp, Joshua and his friends were already talking about coming back next year! It was definitely a great experience and a fun trip! A special thank you to Grandma and Bumpa for pitching in to send Joshua to this awesome camp!!


Here's Joshua receiving his Most Improved award!! We are especially proud of Joshua because he was chosen from about 100 players in his age group to receive this award...presented by "The King"!!


Award Winners! Alex and Blake received the 5-on-5 team champs award and Joshua received individual award for most improved.


Joshua and his Lebron camp coach with his individual camp award!

Fun In "Sun-Diego"

We were in beautiful San Diego for one week. Joshua attended his idol's (Lebron James) basketball camp for 5 days (more on camp in next entry). We all had such a wonderful time. Lance and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary, went to Sea World, Legoland, we went swimming, shopping, and Lance's favorite...eating, etc. The weather was perfect. We stayed at the Hilton Resort and Spa, Torrey Pines in La Jolla.
Joshie and Jayden at Sea World first in line to ride the "Journey to Atlantis". Joshua pictured above winning this giant official NBA Cavs bear by shooting and making 3 baskets on the very high, triple rimmed, and difficult game. The guy working at the booth was shocked that Joshua made 2 shots in a row...he said, "oh my gosh!! Grown men can't even make one of those baskets"...needless to say, he was very impressed with Joshua! Joshua wanted that bear badly and said he'd win it. He did it!! At first he wanted to carry his bear because he was so proud of it, and everyone at Sea World knew he won it. The bear is literally bigger than Jayden! Joshua could barely walk and carry it at the same time, so Lance ended up taking the bear to the car.




Here's Joshua one night after the Lebron camp (around 1030pm)eating room service!






Here's Jayden swimming and jumping in the pool at the Hilton...he did this for hours! Our boys did sleep very well on this trip, that's for sure!

Jayden at Legoland riding his favorite ride, the Lego cars! He rode this 3 times! The cars have a gas pedal and brake pedal just like a real car. All the kids were told to drive on the right side of the road, stop at the stop signs, and red lights. Jayden was probably the only one who followed directions! All the other kids were driving on the left side of the road, going through redlights, and even bumping in to each other!

We've been to Legoland a few times but this year seemed to be the most crowded! Most rides had a 60 to 90 minute wait time! We were there for about 8 hours! Most of the time we were standing in the long lines! Jayden had a great time and that's what was most important.

What a great trip we all had! Fun, fun, and more fun!

7 Already?

Happy 7th Birthday to Jayden! Here he is pictured in his brand new Chris Paul jersey from Uncle Donnie, Aunty Lisa, Alex, and Marisa! Cool! We took Jayden to one of his favorite place's, John's Incredible Pizza for some pizza and games. Fun, fun, fun!

Another year older, wiser, and cuter!!! Happy birthday to our lovable Jayden!

Next Level Bball Training 2009 Summer Skillz Camp

Another successful skillz camp to add to our record. With close to 30 campers aged 7-11, Coach Lance and staff put on a great summer basketball camp. Campers were happy, had fun, were challenged, played games, had contests, won prizes and received recognition.

Thank you to all of our special volunteer coaches: Jim, John, Jackson, Andrew, Vance, and Grant Z. You guys are awesome and we couldn't have done it without you!

Please visit our site at www.nextlevelbballtraining.com for photos, short videos, and testimonials on our camps/clinics.