Shantel Hardison hosts annual “Girl you got it” youth basketball camp

SHREVEPORT, LA (KTAL/KMSS) — Former Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters guard, Shantel Hardison held her annual “Girl you got it” basketball camp at LSU Shreveport. While the focus of the camp was the fundamentals of game, Hardison knows it’s more than just basketball.

“Basketball is just one aspect of life, you still got the off-court things,” Hardison said. ” In these times you got kids dealing with so much bullying, social media, cyber-bulling and all kinds of things, so I think them including the workshop in the camp is just awesome and it’s good for the girls.”

The lessons learned from the camp is something Hardison wants these girls to takeaway and to grow as basketball players.

“Everybody uses the word great and at some point you just got to get better first, so just coming in understanding that you can’t play the game any kind of way,” Hardison stated. You got to know the little things and the correct way of your defensive stance or holding the ball correctly to shoot, different things like that, just how to get better.”

The sport of women’s basketball has grown significantly over the past few years, which is exciting for young athletes looking to play down the road.

“It’s an awesome thing to see where the game is now and I think it’s gonna evolve even more,” Hardison said. “You got young ladies now that are dunking the ball, so I think it’s going to evolve even more and it’s fun to watch. I always tell the kids you have to have a desire, a passion, a love for game to get better in order to become one of those players.”

The best advice Hardison gave to the kids is to work hard every chance you get.

“Soak up whatever knowledge they are giving you, go home and work on it. You see a lot of kids that want to be the best now, they want it so quick. This generation is just the right now generation, saying okay I got to work on my left hand or I got to work on whatever it is they need to work on,” Hardison said.

The skills and knowledge the kids learned today, will go a long way if they want to continue playing basketball.