University of Oregon students Caleb Charonnat and Nina-Grace Aaron found a love for sports such as baseball, softball and basketball, throughout their childhood. When they arrived on campus, as freshmen, they sought ways to share that passion for sport with the UO and Eugene community.
Cue, Warsaw Sports Business Club. Where students who have a “shared goal of changing the world through the power of sport” meet to put their ideas and thoughts into action.
One of those actions is Hoopfest. Hoopfest is a basketball camp that will be held on April 16, at the KidSports Eugene complex. KidSports and Warsaw combined to host the basketball camp for fifth through eighth graders. They’ve partnered with UO athletes and student volunteers to coach passing, dribbling, shooting drills and an end of camp 3×3 tournament.
Eugene residents had been sending their children to Hoopfest for over 20 years until COVID-19 put the event on pause for the past two springs. Charonnat and Aaron are two students who are part of the team that’s taken on the role of reviving the camp. But why should Eugene residents commit to sending their children to Hoopfest 2 years after it was canceled?
“You should put your money into Hoopfest because we really care about this event and have spent five months meeting every week to put it together,” Charonnat said. “Everyone involved in putting the event on wants Hoopfest to bring the passion they felt as a kid to these kids.”
The Warsaw team is dedicated to restoring the magic that Hoopfest provided for the Eugene community in the past. Hoopfest represents a more significant cause as all the proceeds go toward Parkinson’s research. Hoopfest also intertwines the UO community and the Eugene community, as the students share their love for sports with the campers.
Aaron shares a direct line to one of the campers who’s already signed up for the camp. Her little brother, Dakota.
“I’ve seen how sports have impacted my life,” Aaron said. “My brother and I are very similar, so I see [sports] impacting him as well, so I’m glad I’m part of that journey for him.”
Aaron’s connection to the campers runs straight through her family lines. Charonnat has no blood relationship with any of the campers, but he values the memories and friendships that sports camps brought him as a kid.
“I went to baseball camp as a kid,” Charonnat said. “I played in the final game and we lost by two runs but it meant a lot because I was facing off against one of my best friends. After the game, we all hung out, and the result didn’t even matter. Its moments like these make sports special; you can come together for a day and build relationships. That’s the magic of sports.”
Therefore, he was the perfect person to take the reins of helping to plan and run Hoopfest. He is both dedicated to basketball and the preparation it takes to oversee a busy sports camp.
Hoopfest expects around 100 campers but is open to way more. In its heyday, Hoopfest was home to over 180 campers who participated in 5×5 basketball tournaments. Competition ruled the day. In Hoopfest’s return to action, Charonnat and Aaron intend to put competition on the backburner.
Instead, Warsaw’s members and UO student-athletes will ensure that the 2022 rendition of Hoopfest will focus on the campers’ pure enjoyment of basketball and the fundamentals of the game. Aaron hopes the campers will learn to love basketball the way she loves basketball.
While having fun and learning the sport is important, the camp’s always intended to help a greater cause. At first, the money went to the Stephen Dember memorial scholarship. Dember was a business major at UO who passed away in Aug. 2005 while he was still a junior at the university.
If you look up school spirit in the dictionary, Dember’s name would come up alongside it. The epitome of a superfan. Dember was the vice president of The Pit Crew and sat in the front row of the student section for each Oregon men’s basketball game. Dember held a 3.84 grade point average and was accepted into the business school honor college.
After his passing, his family created the scholarship and partnered with Warsaw to give it to one student each year who embodied the same values that Dember stood for.
In its return, Hoopfest is dedicating all of its proceeds to Parkinson’s research.
Charonnat and Aaron hope to attract more campers to Hoopfest while conveying their love and dedication to the camp. The event takes place on April 16, but its effect on the Eugene community will reach much farther than next month. The kids who participate in Hoopfest will feel a connection to the students and student-athletes who put it on.
More information on Hoopfest can be found here.
