The Reebok Breakdown Underclassmen Camp officially got underway Friday afternoon in Chicago, Illinois. With 105 different campers from around the United States taking the floor on day one and taking part in drills and instruction, Arizona Preps is on hand to bring you recaps of each day’s top performers.

As the official Media Director for this weekend’s event, I had the opportunity of going behind the scenes with Camp Director Chris Rivers and the camp staff to witness the early developments of this year’s exciting event.

This year’s Breakout Camp is a showcase of the nation’s top rising junior, sophomore and freshman prospects from around the country. 85 of the camp’s 105 campers earned invitation’s to this year’s event through participation in 12 different Headliner Tryout Camps across the country.

Four of Arizona’s top young prospects are in attendance for this weekend’s event, as Dobson’s John Bailey, St. Mary’s Jordan Didier, Desert Ridge’s Judd Welfinger and Horizon’s Stephen Topercer are each taking part.

At the completion of the weekend’s camp, five of the top campers will earn invites to the prestigious Reebok U All-American Camp (July 5-10) held in Philadelphia, PA.

On Friday afternoon, campers arrived at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Chicago by way of airplanes, trains and cars, with each of the participants eagerly looking for an opportunity to be crowned as one of the nation’s elite young prospects. Several of the campers, being late additions to the camp, purchased plane tickets the night before the beginning of the camp, paying high plane fares simply for the opportunity to participate in such an event.

Overall, the dedication by each individual student-athlete to make their way to this weekend’s camp showed the significant commitment by today’s athletes across the country, as they each continue their journeys to earn college scholarships. While an event like the Breakout Camp may not be the complete answer, it is definitely serious progression for the basketball prospect looking for exposure to a different world of athletics.

As campers went through drills and competed against one another in later scrimmages, what was most evident was the superior instruction given by the volunteer coaches in attendance, each giving their valuable time towards helping the development of today’s youth.

While each year scouts and media attend camps such as this one looking for the next great prospect, it often goes unnoticed as to the many young faces that are in attendance looking to be just that - a top guy. As many of today’s young athletes continue to compete for the right to earn stardom, it has become much more interesting to Reebok and their staff the journey that is involved and the commitment that takes place in the process.

Arizona Preps will be on hand for all of the weekend’s events, and will look forward to bringing you daily coverage of the camp’s top performers and surprise breakout performers.

Notes: Two Arizona prospects that earned invites from this year’s Arizona Headliner Tryout Camp were not in attendance Friday. Mountain Pointe’s Jahii Carson and Chaparral’s Zeke Chapman both were missing in action Friday. Arizona Preps learned that Carson was instead attending the Arizona State elite camp, while Chapman was with his high school attending the University of San Diego team camp.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Breakout Camp, PrepChamps News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.