Kudos to our Coaches and Guest Speakers

Written By, Dan DeFilippis
Mar 28, 2024

At MVP Basketball Camp we like to say that the heart and soul of the program are the great coaches and guest speakers who come back to us year after year. I’d like to recognize the accomplishments of three of them this past basketball season.

Torey Thomas, former MVP  camper, coach, and guest speaker, was named last week as League MVP of the Tauron Basket Liga, the Polish professional basketball league. In voting by the journalists and TV commentators who follow the league, Torey came in ahead of players like Daniel Ewing, former Duke Blue Devil and a second round NBA draft choice in 2005.  Torey’s team, PGE Turow Zgorzelec, finished the regular season in second place and is competing this week in the playoffs. Torey averaged 13.5 points, 6 assists, and 2 steals during the regular season. Torey is planning to return as a guest speaker this summer at MVP

Former MVP Coach and recent guest speaker Cori Chambers also tasted success this past winter in her position as Director of Women’s Basketball Operations for Marist College. The Lady Red Foxes won 31 games during the season against only 3 losses. One of those losses, a narrow 71 – 66 defeat at the hands of overall two seed Duke in the NCAA Division 1 tournament, ended a  spectacular campaign that featured a conference championship, two regular season wins against Big East teams and a tournament win against Iowa State.  Cori also plans to be a speaker again this summer at MVP.

We can’t take any credit for the success of Bob Hurley, Hall of Fame coach at St. Anthony’s High School in New Jersey, but we can say we have been blessed by his appearance at our camp in past years. Hurley’s team finished the 2010/11 campaign at No. 1 in the national rankings for the fourth time in school history. As always, this year’s team will be sending several players to Division 1 College programs. Hurley’s last consensus No. 1 team in 2007/08 featured D1 players Dominic Cheek (Villanova), Jio Fontan (USC), Mike Rosario (Florida), Tyshawn Taylor (Kansas), and Travon Woodall (Pittsburgh).

Under the umbrella of MVP’s Youth Development Program, all guest speakers focus on broader skills that are developed at camp, like leadership, teamwork, sportsmanship, and perseverance, and how those skills relate to success at home, in the classroom, and in future career endeavors.  MVP also spotlights health and wellness issues like nutrition that are so important to the development of today’s youth. As soon as the 2011 guest speaker schedule has been finalized we will post it here. Parents are always welcome to listen in on a presentation at camp.

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