Aside from the camp's unique approach to basketball, campers and parents seem to be equally impressed with the coaches. “The coaches’ terrific attitudes on basketball and life are gifts they pass on to their students!” exclaims one parent. Joining Lottich on the 2005 staff are former Stanford teammates Olatunde Sobomehin and Joe Kirchofer, MIT sophomore guard Alan Ho, as well as Oladele Sobomehin and Vytas Dargis-Robinson, a graduate and a senior, respectively, from Santa Clara. “It’s great to see the kids’ learning and having fun,” says Ho. “You just feel like you want to go out there and give them 110%. We never realize we’re tired until we fall right asleep on the couch when we get home.”
The positive energy starts from the directors, Matt and Tunde - from planning and setting up to locking up the gym in the evening, the staff works as a close team each day. A few members of the staff are even known to spend up to an hour making up the next day’s “Daily Trivia,” a riddle designed to have associations to both the day’s life lesson and Matt Lottich’s basketball career. Sometimes the answer to the trivia might even be a surprise guest appearance, as was the case when Josh Childress came to camp to talk about the day’s life lesson – choices.
The best part about Lottich’s camp, however, is that all these unique features supplement the intense basketball instruction the campers receive. From shooting techniques, defensive positioning, off ball movement, to team concepts, MLLS covers them all in detail. Campers are split up in to same-age groups as they rotate around individual skill stations, allowing each coach to teach specifics according to the player’s skill level. With Lottich and his staff sharing personal experiences while they coach, the campers are able to learn the game from accomplished athletes first hand.
“It’s amazing how important these basketball skills are on every level of competition.” says Ho, “Sometimes I realize that little details I teach, like how to come off a screen properly, are the same things that my coach tells us in practice everyday. Then I look over to the next station where Lotty is making a statement, and I think ‘I bet Coach Montgomery used to tell his team that same thing.’” While the kids have fun and learn valuable life skills, they also get great basketball tips from coaches eager to share their knowledge and passion of the game.
The camp has made huge strides in just its second summer. Not only did camp sessions double from two to four, MLLS also launched its new website, allowing campers and parents to view camp photos, highlights, and even the life lessons and daily trivia. “Basketball has taught me many valuable lessons,” says Lottich, “and this camp is my opportunity to pass this knowledge on.”
The key feature distinguishing MLLS from other similar camps, however, remains its unique focus on building not just excellent basketball players, but building the whole individual. Among the daily lessons that translate on and off the court are “believing in yourself,” “commitment and character,” “goal setting” and “hard work.” In a time where the value of character is sometimes called into question, MLLS provides a welcomed sigh of relief by inspiring campers to look within themselves and to find intrinsic value in the lessons learned through basketball.
It’s just a few hours before the Nets summer league team have practice more than 500 miles away from the Woodside Elementary School gym. Lottich gets in the car and gets ready to go the airport, while the whole camp smiles and waves him goodbye. They know that he will be back soon – running camp from 8 to 4 with the rest of his staff.
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