The-Press-News.com - EC graduate to conduct girls' basketball camp

Superstar Tamika Catchings of the WNBA's Indiana Fever will be the featured speaker and camp instructor at a girls' basketball camp at First Friends Church in Canton.

The ballher skills camp is being conducted by Marlington High School girls' basketball coach Tom Miller, who is a graduate of East Canton High School. The camp will begin on Sunday, June 29, and will conclude on Wednesday, July 2. For more information on specific dates and times regarding the ballher skills camp, contact Miller at 330-323-5361 by Friday, June 27. No registrations can be accepted on the day of camp.

The camp, which is open to all interested girls in the surrounding areas entering grades 4-9, costs $140. The cost includes an autograph from Tamika Catchings and the following newly-designed ballher brand items: basketball, drawstring bag and water bottle. Credit card payment is accepted in addition to personal checks and money orders.

The ballher brand is a girls basketball apparell, equipment, and accessories line that was created by Miller and his wife, Kelly, for what they saw was a need for such products in the marketplace. The products currently are sold in the gift shop of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and Museum in Knoxville, Tenn., and have appeared online in SLAM magazine and in the pages of Women's Basketball Magazine. The items can be viewed and purchased at www.ballher.com

Tamika Catchings is a seven-year WNBA veteran with a lengthy list of career accomplishments. A 1998 national champion at the University of Tennessee, Catchings was only the fourth player in Division I history to be named a four-time First Team All-American. She was the WNBA's Rookie of the Year in 2002 and was a back-to-back defensive player of the year in 2005 and 2006. She is a four-time All-WNBA First Team selection and a five-time WNBA All-Star Game starter. In 2004, she was a member of team USA's Olympic gold medal-winning squad in Athens, Greece, and is expected to compete again this summer in Beijing, China.

Miller can be reached by e-mail at info@ballher.com. All proceeds from the ballher skills camp are to benefit the Marlington High School girls basketball program.

While Tamika Catchings only will be in attendance on June 29, appearances and instructions will also be given by Suzy Venet, the head women's basketball coach at Mount Union College, and Lori Bodnar of Kent State University. Several more special guest coaching instructors are expected as well.