By Willie Ellison

On Saturday, August 14th, 300 youth between the ages of 8-13 will converge on the campus of California State University, San Bernardino to participate in the third annual Joe Baca Foundation Youth Basketball Clinic 2010.

The annual event, hosted by the Joe Baca Foundation, is free to the area youth. The drills and skills camp will be held from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. with registration beginning at 8:00 a.m., but only the first 300 youth to register will be able to participate.

A special guest appearance will be announced at a later date, but the camp will also feature some of the top coaches in the Inland Empire, as well as some of the top players in the Inland Empire as well as a couple of former local standouts who have some NBA experience on their resume.

The local coaches who will be participating as coaches at the camp include Steve Johnson, head coach at Eisenhower High School. Johnson’s boys’ varsity basketball team are the defending CIF Southern Section champions. His team won back-to-back CIF Southern Section championships in 2009 and 2010. In 2009 they also won the CIF state championship.

Other participating coaches include Michael Anderson, head coach of the varsity girls’ team at Rialto High School, and John Romagnoli, head coach at A.B. Miller High School. Former Chicago Bull, Corey Benjamin, will also be in attendance to assist with teaching some of the basic fundamentals of basketball.

Benjamin had a six-year career in the NBA and spent some time playing professionally overseas. The former Inland Empire standout led his alma mater, Fontana High School, to a CIF Southern Section in the late ’90s. The former McDonald’s All-American was also the a standout player for the Oregon State Beavers, where his team was a contender for the PAC-10 title each year he was there; Benjamin left Oregon State and entered the NBA draft after his sophomore year. He was a first round draft pick of the Chicago Bulls shortly after the Michael Jordan and the six NBA championship rings they won by putting together double three-peats championship runs. Phil Jackson was the head coach for the Bulls at the time. Jackson is now at the helm of the Los Angeles Lakers, and will attempt to pull off his second three-peat with the Kobe Bryant and Lakers organization.

The camp, which is free to the participating youth, will focus on offensive and defensive fundamentals, sportsmanship, team work, discipline, and it will include a life skills session dedicated to applying all the components of the camp to everyday life.

For additional information about the camp or to RSVP contact Joe Baca Jr. at (909) 275-5444 or visit the website www.joebacafoundation.com.