Jerry reopens summer camp

PBA legend Jerry Codiñera launches his second basketball camp with the first of two batches ready to roll at the Palms Country Club, Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang, on April 5. The second batch is scheduled to begin eight, three-hour afternoon sessions on April 26.

Codiñera, 43, is the perfect camp facilitator. The 6-6 star center-forward certainly knows what he’s talking about. During a storybook 17-year PBA career, Codiñera played in 12 All-Star Games and was named to three Mythical First Fives in 1993, 1994 and 1998. He made it to nine All-Defensive First Teams and led the league in rebounding in 1991, 1992 and 1993.

Codiñera played for Purefoods, Mobiline-Talk ‘N’ Text and FedEx in the PBA and wound up his career as the league’s third leading all-time rebounder behind Ramon Fernandez and Abet Guidaben and No. 11 in the scoring ladder as one of only 13 players to compile at least 10,000 points. He finished with 10,868 points and 7,034 rebounds.

Beyond the stats, Codiñera received the Sportsmanship Award twice in recognition of the way he played the game – with integrity, respect and fairness.

After his playing days, Codiñera decided to stay close to basketball as a coach. He became the head coach of Teletech in the PBL and the La Salle Graduate School. Today, Codiñera is with the coaching staff of recent PBL runner-up Pharex, the University of the Philippines varsity under Aboy Castro and the Smart Pampanga Buddies of Liga Pilipinas.   In the PBA, Codiñera used to be an Air21 assistant coach

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With his rich experience as player and coach, Codiñera decided to put up his own basketball camp at the Palms last year. His debut as a camp organizer was a rousing success as over 80 players showed up for the first batch and another 45 for the second.

Codiñera was in his elements teaching the campers and sharing his basketball knowledge. He brought in FEU high school coach Potit de Vera, Don Bosco coach Gual Garcia and Adamson Lady Falcons senior coach Emilie Vega to assist in the camp. His Purefoods teammate and good buddy Alvin Patrimonio dropped in to give pointers, too. Guest coaches included Smart Gilas’ Djalma Arnedo and Brit Reroma.

Codiñera said the turnout and response encouraged him to organize a second camp this year.

“We’re open to Palms members and non-members,” said Codiñera. “We’re taking in kids as young as seven years old. Our age limit is 21. So far, we’ve gotten confirmations from 40 kids and we’re expecting a lot more. We want to closely supervise the campers so we’re setting a limit for each batch. This way, we’re able to give personalized instructions.”

Codiñera said the camp will provide “the most intense, fun and invigorating basketball training designed to bring out the best in the players, increased respect for sportsmanship, enhanced fundamental athletic activities and a deeper understanding of teamwork and responsibility.”

Codiñera will bring back the coaches who assisted last year and plans to surprise the campers with more guests. He hinted that other PBA legends like Bong Alvarez and Vergel Meneses may join Patrimonio in cameo appearances. Alvarez and Meneses will be tapped to demonstrate their one-on-one skills, showing the campers how it’s done.

Each batch will go through eight three-hour sessions on an M-W-F schedule from 3 to 6 p.m. The fee is P8,200 for each Palms member and P9,000 for each non-member. The campers will receive free jerseys, basketballs, energy drinks, vitamins and Burger King discount cards.

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Codiñera said after the summer camp, he intends to hold weekend sessions all year round.

“We received a lot of inquiries from last year’s campers asking if we could continue the course throughout the year especially for those who are playing for their schools,” said Codiñera. “So now, we’re planning to do weekend sessions where I will make myself available for hands-on instructions.”

Codiñera said the campers come from all walks of life.

“A lot of the kids are PBA and NBA fans,” he said. “They’re eager to learn and improve. We’ll split the campers into a beginners group and an advanced group. For the advanced group, we’ll introduce team concepts and how to read, react and create. We’ll be very sensitive to what the campers need.”

One of the campers joining the first batch is 6-4 1/2, 16-year-old Emmanuel de Paola whose father Mon was a former University of the East varsity cager. The boy is from Manresa and heavily recruited by NCAA and UAAP schools. Codiñera said the camp will feature stations for players of all sizes and positions so there will be no confusion in defining roles.

“We run a personalized camp,” said Codiñera.