A basketball camp held lessons for athletes of all ages.
Inexperienced high-school freshmen, senior all-state players and a college athlete all had valuable takeaways from California youth coaches.
Even Escalante coach Isaac Royston learned something new. Quite a few things, in fact. By halfway through the first day of camp, he already had filled a full page of paper with notes.
“What I like is the discipline,” Royston said, pointing to his notes. “Minds start to float off, basically if you’re not paying attention we’re going to start you from the beginning again.”
The athletes worked on post drills, footwork, transition and much more throughout the weekend.
More than 15 high school athletes, both boys and girls, came for a three-day basketball camp held at Escalante High School on Aug. 11-13. Those included varsity players from local teams, including Española, and two seniors from Escalante were in attendance along with many younger players.
Eli “Cheo” Gallegos, a 1987 graduate and former basketball star of the 1986 state runner-up team, organized the camp (Gallegos explained that his first name is Eliseo, so he became “Cheo” in northern New Mexico, but rarely hears that nickname since leaving the area).
“Besides basketball fundamentals, we’re trying to teach them life skills,” Gallegos said. “Just to be good character kids, how to handle adversity.”
Gallegos, who now lives near San Diego, had the idea for the camp and had been trying to set it up for a few years. Along with Gonzales was Rle Nichols, the founder of High Five America, a California-based non-profit basketball training organization.
“I love it here (in New Mexico),” said Nichols, who had last been to New Mexico for the 1983 NCAA Final Four in Albuquerque. “And the people are awesome. These people here, coaches, kids, are just great.”
Nichols was the first American club coach for NBA Legend Yao Ming when Ming first moved to the United States. Gallegos has spent 23 years working under Nichols since he moved to California.
“I want everyone to experience his knowledge,” Gallegos said.
The Northern New Mexico Recreation & Outdoor Conservation (NNM-ROC) Foundation sponsored the camp, which was free for high schoolers to attend. Royston said the camp being free was great for the local athletes and helping them to develop skills.
“The camp had been needed up here,” Royston said. “Now, we want to try to make it a yearly event.”
Royston, the senior point guard of the 1983 state championship team, said that he and Gallegos had been friends growing up. Though Gallegos was a few years younger, he would always hang out around the older group on the basketball camp.
Santiago Rivas, a former star at Escalante who graduated in 2021, assisted with the coaching staff while participating in drills, and found himself learning lessons about how to operate in the post.
Gallegos has visions for the future of the camp to continue yearly, giving him a chance to come back home. He hopes in the future to bring in NBA and WNBA players that work with Nichols and him.
“We’re going to definitely make this an annual thing,” Gallegos said. “I want Escalante High School, my dream is to have the biggest basketball camp in the southwest.”