Newport Daily News discusses how for 25 years, Viking Hoops Basketball Camp and Coach Jim Psaras has made Aquidneck Island players better.
“It’s kind of been my baby,” Psaras said. “All my experience gained at (Providence College), URI and Five Star camps, I took what I learned and try to apply it to my camps for the community. I really like seeing the kids walk out smiling.”
[Mason] Choice, the ninth-leading scorer in Rhode Island College history and a three-time first-team Little East Conference player, not only coached at the camp but also was a client…”I started camp when I was 7 or 8 years old in 1997 or ’98,” Choice said. “…in the long run it helped me blossom and helped me in my high school and college career.”
Psaras’ teams won three state titles and 421 games during his 26-year tenure as head coach that began in 1989. There was no local basketball camp for youths in the early 1990s, so Psaras started one…”You can get high-volume basketball from a teaching standpoint and learn fundamentals right here [in Newport]. For me, it’s more like servicing the community. Some kids that were here as 8-year-olds and are now in their 30s, are parents and sending their kids here.”
“It’s not just basketball they’re learning about here.”
“I couldn’t shoot at all when I got the camp. Now I can shoot a basketball really well,” Hagan said. “I improved tremendously. I improved pretty much everything in my game from that camp.” [Parker Hagan – former camper getting ready to head off to college]
“Coach Psaras has done so much for Newport and all around Aquidneck Island,” [Mason] Choice said. “He’s put a lot of work in. The 25th anniversary is more than exciting news. He still continues to provide for the communities. All hats off for coach Psaras.”
