(Credit: Ta’Quan Zimmerman)
Waterbury native Ta’Quan Zimmerman has made his name as an outside shooting threat through hard work and dedication.
The National Basketball League of Canada’s 2018 Sixth Man of the Year is bringing a new camp to Kennedy High School in August that will tie good shooting fundamentals with Zimmerman’s off the court passion, his anti-bullying campaign.
The camp is called “Be A Baller Not A Bully” and will be held Aug. 6-10 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. “Be A Baller Not A Bully” is for kids ranging in age from 9-17. It costs $90 for the week.
“I want to make it cheap and affordable because my goal isn’t to take your money,” Zimmerman said. “My goal is to help so that’s why I’m making it such a low cost of only $90 for the week to come get professional training, and an opportunity to play basketball at the next level, and develop good habits.”
Zimmerman, who worked with Anthony Ireland at his AI3 Skills Academy, sees young players with talent and important pieces are missing.
“You’ll see young kids today with talent, athleticism and potential but they lack fundamentals and have some bad habits like footwork,” Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman reached out to friends like Ireland, Julio Vazquez, Daryl James, John Mariano, Briana Bradford and more to help out at the camp. NBA trainer James Clark from Philadelphia will be a special guest on Day 1. Clark has trained NBA players like Ben Simmons, Dejounte Murray, Kevin Love and Iman Shumpert, just to name a few.
“[Clark will] be here to speak to the kids about bullying and then put kids through a NBA workout, which I think is pretty cool because we don’t have any NBA trainers around here,” Zimmerman said.
Prep schools and colleges will be in attendance, and the names will certainly ring a bell to those who know basketball.
Jim Calhoun and his staff from the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford, the Putnam Science Academy, Taft, Canterbury and Monroe Community College are just a few of the people Zimmerman has gotten to come so far.
Zimmerman said the max number of kids allowed is 200 so each camper can get an equal amount of training time.
“My goal is to draw kids from all over the state, both boys and girls, to push an anti-bullying message, increase their shooting ability, and give them an opportunity to play at the next level,” Zimmerman said.
Check out Ta’Quan’s posts about “Be A Baller Not A Bully” on Facebook. He’s got some pretty cool shares and shout-outs, including a video from NBA trainer James Clark. For more information on the camp, contact Ta’Quan at tootiezimmerman91@gmail.com
