There was an added attraction during a recent Friday afternoon session of the annual summertime Patriots girls basketball camp at Yorktown High School in Arlington.
Former George Washington University women’s basketball player Maren Durant stopped by for an hour to take questions, lead some drills and give the age 6 to 14 campers tips about the game and life, basically talking about different aspects of the sport, she gave away a couple of duffel bags and shared in a pizza lunch.
“It was a lot fun talking and listening the them,” Durant said. “I told them as long as they are willing to have fun, work hard, enjoy the game and get better, anything is possible going forward.”
Durant also told the campers how time-management is one of the biggest aspects to keep control of for those who play high-school and college basketball, and staying ahead of the school work.
Kip Davis is the longtime director of the Patriots camp, which began in 1997 and has become very popular in Arlington.
“Maren was fantastic. She had great advice for the players,” Davis said. “It turned out well.”
Durant played in 27 games for George Washington this past season as a graduate student, who transferred to the school after playing her first four seasons of college ball at Boston University. She was a teammate of Yorktown High graduate Liz Shean at Boston University.
The 6-foot-3 forward from Winchester, Mass., averaged 3.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per contest this past season for George Washington. She blocked 13 shots and had nine steals.
For her college career, Durant scored 869 points and had 948 rebounds to go with 185 blocked shots and 88 steals.
Going forward, Durant still has one more semester to finish her master’s degree, then she may look into playing professional women’s basketball on some level in another country.
“There are options I have starting to explore,” she said.
Davis said the remaining summer camps are sold out.
