It’s not a secret that the East Bay has great professional sports teams all around it. From the San Jose Earthquakes to the San Francisco Giants, these teams bring pride to the Bay Area. However, sometimes pride comes from behind the championship rings and winning titles.
The Golden State Sports Academy (GSSA) is one of those organizations that brings the community together through the power of sports. After 25 years, the organization, formerly known as the Warriors Basketball Academy, has teamed up with the Golden State Valkyries to continue to give youth around the Bay Area an opportunity to learn and bond over basketball.
From June 16 to 20, the basketball camp was held at the Silliman Recreation Center in Newark. “This was our third-ever location,” shared Jeff Addiego, vice president of GSSA. “We’ve been coming to this facility since, I believe, 2002. So it’s been a long time running.”
For their summer schedule, the camp has up to 40 sessions with three to five camps going on in different locations, and even overnight camps available. With 25 years of change, the program has also been able to capitalize on the popularity of the Warriors, but before the team was as popular as they are now, the program still had to deliver.
“The success of our program is really based on those lean years when our [Warriors] team wasn’t really good, but our program had to be strong, and parents had to feel good about sending their kids to camp,” said Addiego. “When [the Warriors] drafted Steph Curry and the team really took off, we were ready to really ride that momentum and make even a larger impact.”
Now, the program is riding another wave of momentum: the Valkyries. With the excitement of the Bay Area’s first WNBA team, GSSA has shifted to make sure the team is included in the camps.
“We wanted to be equally representative of the Warriors and Valkyries,” said Addiego on the program’s name change. The representation can also be seen on the kids as they run on the court, half of them in Warriors jerseys, the other with Valkyries jerseys.
‘I see a lot of my young self in these kids and so I want to give them advice and a lot of the advice that I needed too’ -Festus Ezeli
Another great treat that makes GSSA camp special is the opportunity for the kids to meet NBA alumni. “For them to just see those types of folks walk through the door and really understand how big someone 6 ’11 is, and hear their story […] I think is really inspiring,” said Addiego. That 6 ’11 basketball pro is former Warriors player, NBA champion and NBC sports analyst, Festus Ezeli.
Ezeli spoke to the 80 campers about his journey with basketball, from moving to the United States from Nigeria to the challenges of learning basketball for the first time at 14 years old. He noted the first shot he ever made was in his own team’s hoop, and the embarrassment he felt when he made that mistake.
“I told the kids about my embarrassing moment because I wanted them to understand that failure will happen as a part of sports,” said Ezeli. “So if that failure is imminent, knowing that you can bounce back from that is also an important skill.”
Ezeli also spoke on the advantages of the camp’s connection with not only the NBA but the Warriors. “I’ve watched this camp continue to grow and grow with the popularity of the team,” said Ezeli. “Capitalizing on the fact that an NBA team has [the kids’] attention, that’s part of the excitement.
The success of the camp can be seen as it has produced NBA players such as Will Cherry and Tyler Johnson. The most recent camper turned NBA player is Juan Toscano-Anderson, who played on the Castro Valley High School basketball team and has become the first camper who has gone on to play for the Warriors and also win an NBA championship.
As the camp continues to grow, Addiego notes that the program’s biggest focus for the future is increasing girls’ participation. “We would love to see girls playing beyond elementary school and middle school, and into high school and even beyond.” In August, GSSA will be back at the Silliman Center holding all-girl camps for the first time in Newark.
When it comes to the advice that Ezeli wants young kids to remember, he reflected on the words his college coach used to say: “‘When opportunity knocks, some people are in the backyard looking for four-leaf clovers.’ Instead of waiting to get lucky, I think you just prepare for that opportunity when it comes.”
For more on GSSA camp visit gssportsacademy.com.
