Indians leave mark at FCA camp

Gaffney's Jeff Brown goes strong towards the basket in a 63-56 win over Hillcrest Friday afternoon in a Fellowship of Christian Athletes basketball camp at First Baptist Church. The Gaffney High basketball team won all eight games it played at this weekend's Fellowship of Christian Athletes team camp.

Several teams from Georgia and Upstate South Carolina traveled to compete with Gaffney in a camp organized by area FCA director Pierre Salmon. The camp was held at the First Baptist Church LIFE center.

Gaffney played games against Frederick Douglas in Atlanta, Creekview and Etowah high schools in Georgia. The Indians ended the camp Saturday with victories over Belton Honea-Path, Wren and Woodmont.

"We saw improvement. We played much better than we did the previous week against Lander," Gaffney basketball coach Mark Huff said. "We made a few mistakes. Our guys played hard and that was the main thing we looked for."

Erik Fearn, a 6'5 senior center, was among the bright spots for Gaffney during the FCA team camp. Jeff Brown, Josh Corry and Bubba Wright are among the returning players for the Indians this season.

Gaffney played their usual brand of uptempo, pressure defense basketball.

Huff rotated 10 players throughout the games, using timeouts to teach and make adjustments while allowing his team to get valuable game action.

"We are doing what we want to do. During the season, our goals are always to win the game and play everybody," Huff said. "All of our players got a chance to play and got a lot of reps. This is the only way we are going to get better."

Former Harlem Globetrotter Melvin Adams joined Salmon as a guest speaker at evening programs that ended each day of FCA basketball competition. Salmon and Adams, who played one year with the San Antonio Spurs, offered spiritual food for thought to the high school teams.

Huff was pleased with the quality of competition at the FCA camp and hopes the event will continue to grow.

"There were a lot of real good teams," Huff said. "I'm thankful to all the teams that participated. I hope they enjoyed themselves and were able to play a lot of good basketball while they were here."