Duncan interacts with kids at hoop camp
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The Two Eagle River School gym was full of kids, grades two to eight, at a basketball camp hosted by Nike’s N7 Fund on June 7 and organized by Salish Kootenai Lady Bisons coach Juan Perez.
As a special treat, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was present and he brought along William Mendoza, executive director of the White House initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native education. Mendoza, an Oglala-Sicangu Lakota, grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
Neither the secretary nor Mendoza made a big deal of their titles, and the kids seemed to like them because they were tall and played basketball.
Duncan asked the group of campers what they wanted to be when they grew up. It was quiet, and all the kids just looked at Duncan. He asked some of the older kids and got answers such as physical therapist, doctor and “I don’t know yet.”
While it’s important to practice a lot and work hard on basketball skills, “You have to stay in school,” Duncan said.
If a kid has a problem with algebra or English, get help, he said, by finding a tutor or asking a teacher for extra help
“Catch an education,” Duncan said.
“Find your passion, follow your passion, continue to stay active and aspire to be leaders,” was N7 founder Sam McCracken’s advice to the campers.
The ultimate goal of N7 is to help Native American and aboriginal youth recognize their proud history and build on it for a triumphant future, according to the N7 website.
Building basketball skills was on the agenda at camp, so Duncan divided the kids into groups and ran drills, assisted by Mendoza and a group of Salish Kootenai College Bison and Lady Bison players — Latydia Holiday, Katie McDonald, D. J. Fish — and Silas Perez, assistant SKC Bison coach.
When she wasn’t trying to do what the coaches asked during the drills, Alyssa Vanderburg, 7th grade, said she loves to play basketball. Second-grader Isaac DePoe agreed. They didn’t have much time to talk, since they were dribbling, passing and shooting.
Duncan co-captained Harvard’s basketball team as was named a first team Academic All American while he was attending Harvard. He also played basketball professionally in Australia as well as getting 20 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in the Celebrity All Star game in New Orleans on Feb. 14, 2014.
