DENVER – This city is home to one of the oldest high schools in America as Manual High School opened its doors in 1892.
But for all of its historical elegance, the school’s gymnasium played host to some of the region’s very best of some of the youngest hoopsters of the latest generation.
Saturday’s Day I of the weekend’s 4th West Coast Elite/Denver Camp featured middle school players from in and around the city.
Although there wasn’t an abundance of size on hand with just a half-dozen of the approximately 70 players in the camp checking in at six-feet or taller there were a lot of quality guards and forwards.
And most of those, no doubt, are a long way from topping out vertically.
The bulk of those were on display during the last of the three all-star games played.
The Top 20 affair was won by the squad wearing white jerseys over its black top-wearing opponents, 47-45.
The “white” team got quality performances from, among others, eighth-graders Kobe Sanders (Frontier K-8 in Aurora), Kingbed Agyemang (Hill MS in Denver), A.J. LaCabe (Highpoint Academy in Aurora), David McKean (Castle Rock in the city of the same name) and Hosea Hill II (Columbia MS in Aurora), as well as seventh-grader Cade Palmer (Christ Our Redeemer in Aurora).
Agyemang could have been the fastest player, on the dribble, on display on Saturday while Sanders did a whole lot of things well from both ends of the floor.
And McKean was strong both in the post (as a rebounder and scorer) and the perimeter (he hit a lot of jump shots) and came up with a blocked shot at the buzzer of the final “camp game” before the all-star selections were announced.
For the “black” club, 6-foot-2 Mager Ater (Annunciation Catholic in Denver) asserted himself as the best rebounder at the event while three other eighth graders – Hezekiah Swanson (Omar D. Blair Charter in Denver), Cameron LeVan (Liberty in Aurura) and Jalen Weaver (Clyde Miller P-8 in Aurora) – showed off both the skills and feel that should eventually make them exceptional high school point guards.
It will be the high school players’ turn on Sunday when camp games tip off at 10:30 in the morning.
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