Over four hundred young people from throughout the area enjoyed a day of sports fun at the 2024 LSHOF Junior Training Camp held on NSU’s campus Saturday, June 22. Several newly inducted Hall of Fame members, assisted by coaches and players from NSU’s football and men’s basketball teams, put the young people through a series of drills in football and basketball skills. This is the thirteenth year the training camp has been held in Natchitoches. Over the years, the Junior Training Camp has become an eagerly awaited tradition for area families. The camp’s growing popularity was evidenced by Monroe’s NELA Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation bringing a busload of children down for a day of sports fun.
Players and staff from NSU men’s basketball team were joined by WNBA and Olympic champion Seimone Augustus in conducting a series of fast paced drills that kept the campers on their feet and moving as they learned and sharpened their skills. The campers then moved on to Turpin stadium where the NSU football team awaited with a field full of practice drills. The NSU gridiron squad was joined on the field by several 2024 LA Sports Hall of Fame inductees.
Gumbo, the New Orleans Saints mascot greeted the children. He was joined by staff from the New Orleans Pelicans in hosting a fun sports trivia game where children were able to win fun prizes from both teams.
Natchitoches Regional Medical Center is the primary sponsor, along with the Saints and Pelicans, for this wonderful annual event. NRMC provides free T-shirts to the kids along with healthy lifestyle information and promotional items, and helps underwrite the cost of staging the camp. As always, NRMC is a tremendous community partner.
The Natchitoches Sheriff’s Department has been involved with the event since the inaugural camp and provided the always-popular-to-campers Natchitoches SWAT team and their vehicle. Raising Cane’s supplied sweet tea and lemonade to thirsty campers as well as certificates for a free meal. Thanks to the sponsors, the children enjoyed a fun day of physical activity and education at no cost.
The Natchitoches Parish Journal would like to commend the members of the NSU men’s basketball and football teams who helped at each of the stations. They were unfailingly helpful and gracious to the children. These young men embody everything that is right and good about the student-athlete concept. NSU’s WRAC staff turned their facility over to the campers and supplied water for breaks. They and the teams were superb ambassadors for Northwestern State University.
