Arizona Western College hosts 30th annual youth basketball camp

Arizona Western College kept its youth basketball pipeline moving this summer, shifting its 30th annual camp to Castle Dome Middle School while still drawing K-12 boys and girls from across Yuma County for four mornings of drills, instruction and competition.

The Chapman Automotive Summer Basketball Camp ran June 1-4 from 9 a.m. to noon each day, giving young players a structured way to work on footwork, ball handling, shooting form, defense and rebounding. Arizona Western limited the camp to 125 campers and set the price at $125 for families who pre-registered by May 28, with the cost rising to $150 on the first day of camp.

The move off the Arizona Western College Yuma Campus came because of construction and a new floor installation inside The House, the college’s gym. Rather than cancel the camp or break its 30-year run, the program shifted to Castle Dome Middle School, a change that kept the event in Yuma and preserved a summer option for families looking for supervised, skill-based activity during the hottest stretch of the year.

For head coach Kyle Isaacs, the camp’s value has never been limited to the scoreboard or the drill line. “For 30 years, this camp has been about much more than basketball,” Isaacs said. That emphasis showed up in the camp materials, which promised an official camp T-shirt and other giveaways alongside the on-court instruction.

The long run matters. Arizona Western’s camp has become part of the local summer calendar, with a 2022 session also aimed at K-12 boys and girls in June, reinforcing that the college has used the clinic as a recurring entry point for younger athletes. For many families, that kind of continuity is more than convenience. It gives children a place to stay active, learn the basics from the Matadors coaching staff and stay connected to organized sports in a county where summer programming has to be both affordable and practical.

In that sense, the camp served as both a basketball clinic and a community anchor. It brought elementary and middle school players onto the college’s radar, kept the Matadors visible in neighborhoods across Yuma County and gave young athletes a chance to build habits that can carry into local high school programs and beyond.