Quick rundown of the Junior Phenom Camp
The top ball playing 9th Graders in the northeast
By Sammy Newman-Beck
With the Boston basketball scene booming this year with big names such as Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce on the pro-level and young phenoms Alex Oriahki and Jamal Coombs (UConn Commits) on the high school level it was only a matter of time before the 9th graders in the New England area—or in this case, the northeast—had a chance to showcase their skills and talents. Under the guidance of Claude Pritchard and Bob Wren, the northeastern young-gunners were able to showcase their skills last weekend at the Adidas sponsored Junior Phenom Camp held outside of Boston.
With the camp being hosted at brand new Bridgewater Raynham High school the stage was set. Bringing such sponsors like Elevation Sports, Hoopscoop Online and yours truly SLAM Magazine, the players ventured out from all over. Budding Canadian stars Christopher Joseph (The BEST player in camp by far. A man among boys. 5’11 guard with talents that most high school kids don’t have) and big man Khen Birch (6’7 lanky big man who will grown even more) gave the viewers a glimpse into the next two beasts who you will hear about (Also be on the lookout for the two heading to a prep-school near you!). From Delaware, 5’4 PG Tarriq Cephas controlled the floor and had an incredible basketball instinct—while his defense needs some work and maybe just more focus, he had skills that cannot be taught.
While Canada and Delaware brought its fair share of talent out, Massachusetts held its own. Players such as 6’5 big man Egi Gjikondi showed that with a couple more years and a couple more inches he will be a problem. Somerville native Rakim Smith-Lartey showed his exquisite ball handling ability and his natural poise on the floor—his match up with Cephas was a pretty interesting one to watch. Another bright spot was the surprise play of Zach Horyorowicz. The 5’11 point guard surprised everyone with his uncanny ability to finish with both hands, see the floor unbelievably well and handle any kind of pressure thrown his way. Last but not least was Boston native Stanley Wynn, who seemed composed at all points in every game. The Brighton High School native has good size for his age and easily may grow into a very smart and talented small forward.
While many may frown upon having exposure camps for kids at such a young age, Pritchard and Wren know how to run things right. Whether it was the strong academics lecture midway through camp, or the appreciative coaches they had on hand, the Junior Phenom Camp is a complete benefit to all these young hoopers. So stay tuned, these youngsters may just be the next big thing!
**Side note: There were also 5-8th graders at the camp. While we tend to shy away from ranking players at such a young age. Some names you may hear soon enough are:
Kenny Reed (Boston) and Antoine King (Conn.) both are 8th graders.
31 Responses to “Quick rundown of the Junior Phenom Camp”
Nov.1 at 3:33 pm
white hot eboy says:
Damn, the freshmans getting love? Another 10 years and baby eboy might get some pub.
Nov.1 at 3:48 pm
jbn74sb says:
BETCATS didn’t make the list. Is he in 10th grade?
Nov.1 at 5:10 pm
mitch36 says:
n/e 1 know if there are adidas camps for grade 10 kids
Nov.1 at 5:57 pm
The infamous DP says:
chill out on covering all these young cats. unless they freakin LeBron status they need to be left alone to focus on their homework and what girls to date. play wit it.
Nov.1 at 9:55 pm
Sammy says:
Were not ranking these kids. We are covering an event that is run to benefit kids. We are not ranking them, were just giving light to some kids who shined on that specific day.
Nov.1 at 10:00 pm
General status says:
WOW i never thought that i would be on a page on the slam magazine website lol…..(In case u didnt know im the kid Taariq Cephas that they were talking about up there…..
Nov.1 at 10:47 pm
Ty says:
I was at the event. Rankings are based on politics and affiliation and not necessarily on skill and talent.
Nov.2 at 9:42 am
Lori - NJ says:
Great Job Claude! Keep up the good work.
Nov.2 at 11:23 am
tre upsher says:
man you should check out reservoir high school in fulton maryland to see some realtalent, u seen nothing yet
Nov.2 at 12:07 pm
Karen says:
Why invite 5th and 6th graders if you are not looking at future young stars? Your article only mentioned the high school players, and I understand the logic since they are at the point of entering college, but the young 11 and under needs to know if they have potential and how to get to next level. Need to be consistent in the message you are sending to these kids. You can’t tell them to be a team player and involve everyone in the game but your selection criteria for ranking is who scores the most points by being a selfish player or the point guard distributing the ball as asked. In return, he makes his teammates shine. I know life is not fair–at your camp, it should be all about me. Well, if that’s the case, I guess basketball is not played with 5 players on the court. In addition, I’m unclear why in the players’ bio you ask what position they play but apparently your evaluation of them is at a different position. For example, the team were unbalanced–you had three big kids playing the center position all on one team playing against smaller players on the other other team which forced the bigger guard to play a center position. Also, your website didn’t indicate that one of the benfits of attending your camp would be the potential to be ranked and invited to another camp. I learned a valuable lesson this weekend to be more selective and to do my due diligence on each camp that I send my son to especially when I’m fronting the bill.
Nov.2 at 2:59 pm
Parent says:
I attended this event with my son on 27-28 October at Bridgewater Raynham High School. I checked the website this morning to see if my son was selected as one of the top players. Although he wasn’t, I believe he left this week-end camp with a better understanding of what it takes to achieve the next level as a student athelete. As a parent, it is refreshing to hear at showcase camps, such as this one, that academics are stressed at this level. As we all know, it has to first start in the classroom. I will therefore applaud the Camp Director and his staff for running a fair and professional event.
Parents, for the sake of our young student atheletes, let’s not get caught up in player rankings at such an early age. Let us first prioritize academics! Thank you.
Nov.2 at 4:32 pm
Chris Joel says:
Wow dat kid Zach aint as good as they say….i mean hes good but not that good OVERATED
I saw it first hand because i play at Raynham High and i watched a little bit of it
Nov.2 at 8:45 pm
Jon Dacon says:
Look out for a Kid down south named Adrian Beltran.. 6′2 kid plays like a grown man.. hes in 9th grade stays in Tx. Hes goin places.
Nov.2 at 9:01 pm
Branko Montreal, Canada says:
As you guys mentioned earlier in the text the name ” Chris Joseph” you guys should for sure check this kid out play ball. Great point guard. Check him out at Montreal Basketball league, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Nov.3 at 4:24 pm
famous says:
how come chris joseph isnt ranked? and what grade is he in?
Nov.3 at 8:09 pm
Another Parent says:
I attended the camp with my son. He was among one of the kids who was “ranked”, but no one has yet to explain what that means. I think the event was not run well as the parents and the players weren’t given any information about what was happening at the camp and there was no schedule. A lot of time was wasted with unsupervised shoot-arounds. The camp ended an hour early on the 1st day and about 2 hours late on the 2nd day. The “allstar” games were a joke. Some of the ranked kids aren’t even the best players on their middle school/AAU teams. However there were some talented kids there. I advise parents who are looking for there kids to be “phenoms” in NE to politic and make some connections before they spend their money at the NE camps. Maybe even work the camps. Sammy said that the players weren’t ranked, but that’s not true, check the website nephenom.com.
Nov.5 at 2:03 pm
Dad of Phenom Camper says:
I agree that politics had something to do with rankings, two kids whos fathers helped out coaching were ranked in the top ten of the ninth graders, yet both the writers who wrote articles said nothing about either kid….hmmmmm. Now my kid was ranked and ovrall I thought it was a pretty good experience, right up until I saw those rankings.
Nov.5 at 2:06 pm
Dad of Phenom Camper says:
I don’t think the kid Joseph was ranked because he is a grade older than the ninth graders. Don’t get me wrong the kid is still one heck of a 10th grader.
Nov.5 at 4:44 pm
PARENT says:
Too many CT Knights coaches ranking their own kids. Good players, nothing special! Kids weren’t given the opportunity to play their own position. Too much wasted time, not enough actual games played.
Nov.5 at 4:47 pm
PARENT says:
I agree ALL-STAR games were a joke. You can’t have a all-star game if everyone in camp participates. You should pick ten kids in each age group and let them play 5 on 5 for a whole game, and then the cream will rise to the top.
Nov.6 at 12:32 pm
Karen says:
Regarding the comment about the CT Knights coaches ranking their own kids, it was my understanding that they did not get to vote. I think you should check with the program coordinators on who actual voted for these kids.
Nov.6 at 1:31 pm
Dad of Phenom Camper says:
The CT Knights coaches might not have voted but they were there, involved and the guy who runs the programs kid is ranked third, but not one mention of him, by your writer or the other article that was written….again…..hmmmm…makes you wonder….
Nov.6 at 6:50 pm
JAMAL says:
i love this website because it haves good news
Nov.6 at 6:53 pm
JAMAL says:
I do not have any cmment.
Nov.6 at 10:18 pm
anonymos says:
why wasnt that 7th grader malique mclaren ranked
Nov.7 at 10:43 am
Concerned Parent says:
It is frightening in this day and age that the violence in youth sports originates between parents and spectators who disagree with referees and one another. Society has not learned a thing about the parents who have been jailed for violent acts against other parents and referees. Camps such as Adidas Phenom are venues for our kids to learn how to become better student atheletes and to also make new friends.
So parents, get a grip! Stop living through your children. It’s not about the rankings system, it’s about the opportunity you give your kids to help them to become better student atheletes.
Hopefully, this is not a glimpse of what we’re bound to see from our future parents, if so, ‘Poor Children’.
Nov.8 at 11:38 am
Parent of the son that was ranked 3rd says:
To the parent that is talking about Tylon #3 for 9th grade I am his father and I could care less about any rankings or getting involved with the whole thing. I coached that weekend and did not vote for my son or any other CT Knight player. but since you want to go there lets start with this: Tylon was ranked by other coache’s, he made the top elite at Eastern Inv Camp, point guard for his high school team as a 8th grader,All-star for hoop group camp, All-Tournament team 1st team of the 2007 Nationals 15u in whice he lead his team to the finals, ran point guard for his JV team and lead them to an undefeated 16-0 recored as a 8th grader. Tylon does not need any help from me to get where he wants to go. The only rankings I care about are the ones he gets from his school, Kingswood-Oxford A private school in West Hartford. Come there and you will also see he won an award for High academics, High Honors for all four quarters and that’s the only rankings I care about…… If your kid is that good who is he I never heard of him at all!! ps O yea he had no mention in the Slam but why don’t you click the one beneath Slam and Read about him..
Nov.9 at 11:46 am
Camp Coach says:
I was there I voted on the rankings and I didn’t have the kid in my top 15. I know how he made it to #3. He had other Knight coaches pumping him up all weekend, the kid knew what the deal was, too bad the dad has to try to control everything. Just let the kid play, maybe he will develop into a good player, but he isn’t right now.
Nov.9 at 11:49 am
Camp Coach says:
Oh yeah, the other article is right on, he might be a good role player someday.
Jan.13 at 1:05 am
Lorenc says:
i no dis dude egi nd he got a bro i memba da days i used to play wit dem b4 dey moved from dorchester, nd i used 2 beat em dam gud days now dat dude is as big as ray allen but da kg of high skol ball holla @ me egi
Jun.18 at 2:29 pm
stanley winn says:
yea i just want to say thinks for givin me a chance to be in this event this is boston native stanley winn if u lookin for me i will be in tha gym