Orangeman for a Week by Luke Kopco

I woke up the morning of August 13, 2018 ecstatic. Within three hours, the five hour drive would begin and I would be on my way to Syracuse University. It was amazing to think that I would be sleeping in the same dormitory that my parents had stayed during their freshman year, walking the same streets they did, and playing basketball in the same carrier dome which they had attended games at 20 years ago.
While staying at this historic college, I got a great feel of what college life was really like. From sleeping in an eighty degree dorm, trying to devour the cool air from my "Lil Blizzard" portable fan, to eating in the Sadler dining hall, I loved it. The feeling of walking through the dome and onto the court which countless college basketball legends had played on was something I had never gotten used to.
However, once you step on that court, it isn't all fun and games. The competition is off the charts and coaches know exactly what they are talking about. Many of the coaches have played college ball(some even professional), and monster dunks were commonplace. My coach, Brian, through all of this, made it a point to have fun and shoot the ball as much as possible. He wanted to run a Houston Rockets/Mike D'antoni esque offense, shooting boat loads of threes and putting points on the board constantly. We won our first three games, but hit a vigorous losing streak that lasted for the rest of camp. We never dipped our heads, and my teammates and I still had fun. One of my teammates was actually from Mount Olive and going into his senior year. We had a lot to talk about in terms of the prior basketball season since our teams play each other twice a year.
My favorite part of camp was when Syracuse's head coach Jim Boeheim and former star Lawrence Moten came to talk to us campers. They had a lot to say about life and where basketball can get you both as a person and a player. Boeheim had a lot to say about coaching Team USA with arguably the greatest coach of all time Gregg Popovich. Being a coach is a huge point of interest for me, and it was amazing listening to one of my idols in person. Overall, I had an awesome time at Syracuse and I would totally go again. I would like to thank my parents for sending me to camp in order to improve my game.