The Steve Alford Basketball Camp, a Johnson County tradition since 1987, had no choice but to stop its dribble.
Originally scheduled for June 22-25 at Franklin College, the camp, run by former Indiana University standout Alford, his father Sam and oldest son Kory, is cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The family plans to resume the camp next summer.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
“Our family has always enjoyed our camp at Franklin College,” said Steve Alford, currently the men’s basketball coach at the University of Nevada after stops at Manchester University, Missouri State, Iowa, New Mexico and UCLA. “Working with the young people in the area has been a complete joy.
“We hope everyone is safe and healthy, and we’re looking forward to conducting the camp again next summer.”
Sam Alford, a former Franklin College men’s basketball player who lives in the area with his wife, Sharan, coached 29 seasons of high school basketball in Indiana. He accumulated 452 career victories with tenures in Monroe City, Martinsville and New Castle.
He and Steve, the state’s 1983 Indiana Mr. Basketball, were inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002 and 2009, respectively.
Sam Alford started what was then known as the Alford Basketball Camp at the end of Steve’s junior year at IU in June 1986. The name change took place the following summer shortly after Steve led the Hoosiers to the NCAA championship.
“I had worked a lot of camps, and we got a really good response that first year,” Sam Alford said. “Steve has always been there. He stays the whole day every day and eats lunch with the kids. We try to teach them that basketball is fun, because if we don’t do that, they’ll find something else that is fun.”
Kory Alford, 28, has been a presence at the camp virtually his entire life.
In April, he was named the men’s basketball coach at Huntington University, which plays in the Crossroads League with the likes of NAIA powerhouses Indiana Wesleyan and Marian University.
Kory, previously the director of player development at Nevada, and his wife Haley drove to Huntington recently to close on their new home. Alford will miss that his family can’t host girls and boys from grades 2-7 at Franklin College this summer, but he’s glad to have new challenges to keep him busy.
“You never want camps to be cancelled. I think it hurts the kids because they don’t get to come out and have fun. But we’re definitely planning to do the camp the following year,” he said. “It’s likely things will never be like what normal used to be, but you have to stay in tune with things and keep the campus and facilities as safe as possible.”
Indian Creek boys basketball coach Drew Glentzer, a counselor at the 2019 Alford camp, looked forward to serving the stepping into the same role this summer.
“It’s just meeting new people and building different relationships. The camp gives me a chance to see kids of different levels of play,” Glentzer said. “Pretty much all the parents of the campers remember when Steve played at IU, so they’re kind of star-struck.
“The camp is very well organized. I’ll definitely miss it, and I know a lot of the kids will, too.”
