HANCEVILLE, Ala. – The fourth annual Ballin Like A Bulldog Basketball Camp took place on July 23rd and 24th, and 160 kids attended the camp. Coaches and players all helped the kids with so many skills both days, with some fun added into it as well. The camp organizer, Brittani Armstrong Coker, is so grateful to have started a camp that’s near and dear to her heart, and the whole community helped her out in so many ways.
“This camp is so close to my heart for several reasons. It’s the way that I can give back to the community in the best way I know how. It’s an opportunity for me to provide a constructive environment for our youth to experience the impact that this community and this sport can make on their lives,” Coker said. “I took a step back in the corner of both gyms to just take a minute and appreciate what this community has helped me build over the past four years. I took the time to look into a gym filled with 160 kids who share my love for this game, to watch dozens of high school athletes take the time to invest in our youth, to appreciate the time the high school and middle school coaches put in to designing drills and running stations, to be in awe of the ladies that held me together during those days and made sure that every child was taken care of, and my mom who ensured that I had everything I needed in my hands at exactly the time that I needed it without hesitation. I am humbled by this camp in new ways every year, but more so this year than ever before. I am awestruck that 43 kids were sponsored by strangers without question. I am amazed that 79 local businesses or community members donated to the camp in some way to help pull this off. 160 families trusted me with their most precious possessions.”
Brittani’s heart for the kids is so big that she treats them as if they were her own. The large number increase from four years ago to now shows that the future is getting brighter and brighter for Hanceville basketball, and she’s so blessed to be able to share this event with so many important people.
“I treat every one of the kids that walk through those doors as if they were one of my own, and that will never change. My goal is for each child that attends my camp is simple: to leave feeling loved, supported, and heard,” Coker said. “When I started this camp on a whim a few years ago, we only had 61 campers. This year we had 160. My mind is still blown. The growth of this camp is astronomical, and this is only the beginning. There is so much more we can still achieve. I have so much gratitude towards my community, towards my family, towards my fellow Bulldogs, and towards my little brother, Bear, for being my reason why every single day. I am so privileged to share this event with all of them.”
Everyone provided the kids with so many things during the four years that they’ve been having the camp, and Brittani is so blessed to be a part of the Bulldog community.
“Over the past four years, we have been able to provide school supplies, personal hygiene products, lunches, basketballs, snacks, toys, candy, and so much more to 451 children. Four hundred and fifty-one. That makes my cup overflow,” she said. “I hope that people can see that this is who Hanceville really is, what we are all about as a community, and I pray that I will always be in a position to give back to the place that built me into who I am today. I also want to specifically give a special shout out to my dad, who put a basketball in my hand before I could even walk. Something so simple turned out to be so important in my life. Without him, I would have never fell in love with this game as a little girl, and without that, none of this is even remotely possible. Once A Bulldog, Always A Bulldog. It’s Game Time!”
