NBA star highlights Carroll's intense camp

Jimmy Carroll looked like the one having the most fun while running a session of his basketball camp Wednesday at Regional Gym.The 1992 Placer High graduate, who set numerous Hillmen scoring records before enjoying Division I college success and a brief professional career, was all emotion while teaching fundamentals to about 60 boys ages 10-16.During a scrimmage near the end of the four-hour session, he constantly stopped play to slap high-fives with anyone who executed a play properly or to demonstrate how to do a play correctly.?I?ve been going to camps my entire life. A lot of the things I do are imitations of what my high school coaches did in camps,? Carroll said afterward, referring to his micromanagement style of instruction. ?Kids play too many games with bad habits instead of learning how to minimize them. They keep shooting the wrong way, and that becomes their shot.?At ?Jimmy Carroll?s 2nd Foothill Basketball Camp,? a week of morning sessions wrapping up today and Friday, its namesake works with kids like they live next-door.Carroll enlisted the help of four other ex-Hillmen ? Nick Briscoe, Nate Swesey, Sean Jergo and Justin Bailey ? to help him run the camp. But he was still at the center of the action most of the time, not watching from the sideline like some prima donna ? even though he is a legend to modern Placer basketball fans and still good friends with NBA player Keith Van Horn, his teammate and roommate at the University of Utah in the early 1990s.This past April, Carroll held his first camp at Regional Gym and drew about 55 kids. After handing out some Van Horn-autographed items at that camp, he came through with a promise to have Van Horn himself at his summer session.Van Horn, a seven-year NBA player who was traded from the Philadelphia 76ers to the New York Knicks two weeks ago, showed up at about 10 a.m. Wednesday and stayed an hour before having to catch a flight back home to Utah.Answering questions from campers, the 6-foot-10 Van Horn called the 6-6 Carroll one of the three best shooters he?s ever known ? ?and I say that not just because he?s here,? Utah?s all-time leading scorer added.?He has a good understanding of the game,? Van Horn said of Carroll in a later interview. ?If he decides to coach he?ll be a good one. He has a knack for teaching teamwork and passing on his knowledge of the game. He came out to my camp (in Utah) last year and he did such a good job there. I?m happy to see him running his own camp.?Bob Warmuth, who played college basketball in West Virginia and has helped coach his son Chris? AAU basketball teams, said he didn?t mind paying $165 for his son to participate in this week?s camp because he likes the individual attention Carroll and his assistants give to the kids. ?The kids are always working with each other,? Warmuth said. ?It?s intense, but it?s positive intensity. Jimmy has a good basketball background so he?s credible to the kids as opposed to some dad trying to teach. He?s very active out there. They?ll be having a 5-on-5 game and he?ll keep jumping in there to say something.?Carroll, who makes a living as a personal trainer for basketball players ages 10 and up, said his ultimate goal is to have his own gym. He said he also hopes to coach an ?elite? eighth-grade boys team that could play in national tournaments like the Pacific Pistols girls teams do in AAU play.