Shenendehowa's Koubek becoming brand name

PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Kelly

Greg Koubek, right, smiles as he chats with Shenendehowa varsity boys' basketball head coach Tony Dzikas at the Greg Koubek Basketball Camp in Clifton Park on Thursday.

When Greg Koubek started his hometown basketball camp, he was 22 years old and just months removed from winning an NCAA title at Duke University with Mike Krzyzewski as his coach.

Now, two of his three kids are old enough to attend a week of the Greg Koubek Basketball Camp, which begins its 25th summer of operation on Monday. When Koubek mentioned this year’s milestone anniversary for the camps to a couple of his colleagues in California where he is the executive director at the West Valley Family YMCA, their response was predictable.

“What? You’re that old?” Koubek said they asked him.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m that old.”

He doesn’t look it. While the day-to-day running of the camp is now left to directors Don Juron and Tony Dzikas — both veteran area coaches —the 46-year-old Koubek still makes the cross-country trip for two of the three weeks of his camps, approaching those hoops sessions with his trademark enthusiasm. His goal, he said, was always to have the camps be a reflection of his love for the game that he excelled in at Shenendehowa High School and Duke before playing seven professional seasons overseas.

The essentials of the camps — quality instruction mixed in with heavy doses of fun — have not changed since the beginning, but scope and setting is much different. In 1991, the camp provided only one week of action for roughly 60 kids and was played outside; in 2015, there are three weeks of offerings — a half-day, full-day, and overnight camp — and approximately 625 kids will play at indoor venues on the Shenendehowa campus and outdoors at Brant Lake.

Originally, the appeal for the camps was seeing Koubek up close, getting to watch and learn from the 1987 Mr. New York Basketball award winner who led the Plainsmen to the state title that year. As years go on, though, it becomes less likely that many of the campers know about Koubek’s individual success — but that has not stopped those kids from flocking to the camp.

“The camp has become such that it’s its own brand now,” said Dzikas, Shenendehowa’s varsity boys’ basketball head coach.

When Koubek is able to make it to the camps — he uses vacation time from his YMCA job for those weeks — he works his way around to the different courts of action, offering encouragement to players and coaching tips to the many high school-age counselors.

Evan Warner, a rising junior at Shenendehowa, is working for the first time this summer at the camps. Growing up, he said he “always had a blast” attending the camps, and said it was a unique experience to get to work for and alongside his high school program’s icon.

“I definitely feel a little old,” said Warner, smiling to reveal a set of green braces on his teeth. “It’s different working the camp after playing in it. I did the drills these guys were just doing and messing up in them a few years ago.”

This year, Koubek made it to the camp’s half-day offering and plans to be at the upcoming overnight camp. His daughters, 8-year-old Helena and 6-year-old Olivia, played at the half-day camp, while his 1-year-old Cassius ran around the gyms chasing basketballs.

Koubek said his daughters have not shown a lot of interest yet in the game, leaving Dad’s calls for playing partners at home to be mostly unsuccessful. The chance to see his girls play at his camp back in his hometown, though, has left him reinvigorated.

“It’s become new for me all over again because now I’m seeing them go through it,” Koubek said.

Some things, though, never change. Each year, Koubek knows to expect at least one of the campers to ask to see the 6-foot-6 former hoops star dunk. When that happens this summer, he said he would not duck the request — even if he is getting “that old.”

“I haven’t tried since last year,” Koubek said. “But, last year, I still could.”