Tennessee gives kids a once in a lifetime experience at camp

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Tennessee Basketball Camp offers 2 weeks of skill development, drills, and competitive games for rising 3rd graders to rising 8th graders.

"It's so cool because you get to experience what the players experience almost every day,"

said Jackson Foster, who attended Tennessee's camp.

Being inside Thompson - Boling Arena is 10-year-old Jackson Foster's favorite part about Tennessee's Basketball Camp.

About 200 kids learn how to play the game.

"Ball handling, defense, just the good skills that you need to learn to be good at basketball,"

said Foster.

A big part of the day involved learning from UT players.

"Just the fact that our presence can bring so much joy to some of these kids,"

said Kyle Alexander, who is a forward for UT's basketball team.

"We have long schedules up at 5 a.m.. We got class before this, but we try to get here encourage these kids.They're a blast.A lot of us are our coaches of our own teams, so I just teach them to compete."

While basketball lessons help kids get better, it's the way players treat them that sticks.

"They're just so nice,"

said Foster.

"They just respect you and they just give you their skills."

"Basketball just brings people together,"

said Alexander.