American coach Jeff Rekeweg has given a high five-alive to York's basketball-boomers.

Former professional player Rekeweg was the star attraction at the international camp organised by the York Basketball Forum.

And after a gruelling week of passing on to York youngsters skills honed in the keenest competition in the world, he fully endorsed the YBF's concerted attempts to get the thriving sport on the up in the city.

He admitted being 'knocked out' by the level of enthusiasm he had encountered at the camp at Burnholme Community College. Such fervour, insisted Rekeweg, would go considerably to establishing a broader base to the game.

Declared the 32-year-old head coach at the University of St Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana: "The interest is there. The skill is too and there's a corps of people committed to helping develop the sport.

"There's no reason why York cannot have junior teams and eventually senior teams too."

Rekeweg, who also played a year as a professional in Ireland before returning home to become one of America's youngest head coaches, hailed the initiative of the YBF, which had organised the week-long camp topped by Rekeweg's inclusion as coach.

"You've got to have a platform and the Forum is providing that. I have seen the interest here of a lot of people who love the game. If you have that then you can take it a step further," said Rekeweg, whose own competitive career started at the age of five after two years earlier being encouraged to play by his professional-playing father.

"I can remember he used to blindfold me and then give me the ball to bounce around and dribble so that I was comfortable with it at such an early age."

'Getting them young' was a policy that had to be adhered to in York if basketball is to flourish, added the coach, whose own studies at the University of Nebraska were funded by a basketball scholarship.

"It has to start with young people, though, so as it will have a good platform on which to grow.

"There's a big need for coaches. Teaching young men and women to be coaches is very important in the proper development of basketball."

That coaching aspect had been well explored during the week-long camp with a handful of teenagers taking up the role of 'counsellors', whereby they developed their own coaching ability to pass on to youngsters.

Enthused Rekeweg: "I have been so encouraged by the camp.

"There have been kids here who know much more about the National Basketball Association in America than I do. So there's no doubt there's a love here for the game.

"We need now to build on that passion and show the youngsters the more you play it the better they will become and that will mean they will enjoy playing and watching even more."

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