BTN News: A high-pitched voice pierces through the clamor of dozens of students from Maristas San José del Parque school in Madrid, gathered in the basketball gymnasium. “He’s coming, he’s coming!” one of the kids exclaims upon seeing the imposing figure of basketball player Sergio Rodríguez (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1993) entering through one of the doors. The forward from Movistar Estudiantes walks through a corridor formed by some of the children as a welcoming committee and heads towards the stands where the rest, over a hundred kids, are waiting. There is a special reason for his visit. Rodríguez is the star of one of the Gigantes by Endesa Basket Lover camps, the summer training camps that have been promoting basketball among young kids during their summer vacations for the past decade.
The LEB league star and former Liga Endesa player spent a day with the students of San José del Parque. He played with them, taught them tricks to shoot better, signed jerseys, and answered all their questions. “Except for how tall I am, they always ask me that. I’ll tell you first: 2.04 meters,” Rodríguez announces to his audience, who marvel at his height. “Wow, he’s tall…” some murmur.
Rodríguez himself was once one of those kids whose parents signed them up for basketball camps every summer. It helped him dream, almost prophetically, of becoming a professional. “All my memories are very nice. You meet many peers and get excited about visits from your idols,” he recalls. Now, seeing it from the other side, he is the one being looked up to by hundreds of kids. For professional players, he says, these camps are an opportunity to share their experiences and the values they have acquired in their careers. “We were also kids and we know it makes them happy to have a good time. And I with them.”
Sergio Sánchez, the expansion manager of the Gigantes camps and a former player, stands next to Movistar Estudiantes’ forward Sergio Rodríguez. The Gigantes camps were born in 2014, initiated by Gigantes magazine. Over 19 editions have been completed, both during summer and Christmas school holidays. Their success has nearly doubled the number of locations in recent years, from 14 locations in 2021 to 26 in 2024 across the country, and the number of participants has grown from 2,130 to 3,690. The age of the participants ranges from 7 to 17 years, although most are between 10 and 12, according to Sergio Sánchez (La Línea de la Concepción, Cádiz, 1981), the expansion manager of the Gigantes camps. “The philosophy is for children to enjoy themselves during the time they are out of school. Kids who don’t know each other become friends in three days,” explains Sánchez, who also played professionally for 12 years in the Liga Endesa.
The goal of the camps, according to Sánchez, is to ensure that formative basketball has “more and more space in society.” And with that, promote the values associated with this sport. “A very important part is to eliminate individualism and encourage collective leisure, teamwork, friendship…” But there’s also time for the sports part. “We want them to leave being better players than when they arrived.” Sánchez himself has signed his children up for the San José del Parque camp he directs: “I always tell them to enjoy it because when you grow up and become professional, it’s a different story,” he summarizes.
David de Teresa was a student at the camps between the ages of 10 and 14. Now, he has been a coach for three years. In the quest to improve the athletic conditions of the students, they propose activities to improve individual techniques, team play, or shooting. The students train in groups of about 10 players, separated by age, but then come together to foster camaraderie. Thus, the older ones encourage the younger ones, and vice versa. All under the supervision of the coaches. David de Teresa, 20, has been attending as a coach at the San José del Parque camp for three years, both in the summer and winter editions. This year, he will play for Arganda del Rey in the National League. He also attended the Gigantes camps from the age of 10 to 14 and believes that kids “can learn a lot.” For example, managing frustration from a “simple exercise that doesn’t work out” or being better teammates by helping those who have more problems. “Values that are hard to instill unless you’re in sports,” says De Teresa. “Seeing the kids enjoy this beautiful sport is the most important thing.”
Marta Garrido and Akalu Pardo, students of San José del Parque, participated in this summer’s edition. Marta Garrido, 15, a student at San José del Parque who debuted at the camp this summer, confirms these feelings. “The experience is very good, the coaches are super friendly and teach you a lot of things,” she says. Her dream is to be a professional basketball player (“my position is point guard, I run the game”) and she acknowledges that the coaches’ advice is essential to “take the pressure off” during games. What she enjoys most is the bonding with her teammates at the end of each training session. Akalu Pardo, a 16-year-old student who has been attending the camp since he was 10, highlights the “good vibes” with others. “You help the younger ones, and it makes us all bond. It motivates making many friends,” he says. He values the visit of a professional player, as it “has made us see things we don’t usually see in interviews.” He took advantage of Sergio Rodríguez’s visit to ask him a question, although with some humor. “The coaches, before he arrived, told me: ‘Ask him something funny.’ So I wanted to know how much he earns,” he explains, laughing, although he admits that the Canarian player, with a move typical of a match, dodged the question with a smile. The one question he couldn’t avoid was about his height. “I knew someone would ask me…” laughs the forward.
Endesa, a decade supporting youth basketball
As with any sport, no basketball star forgets their beginnings. Felipe Reyes, Rudy Fernández, Sergio Rodríguez… Many professional players participated in summer camps during their early formative years. Now, they see it from the other side thanks to the Gigantes Endesa by Basket Lover camps, initiatives that began a decade ago to boost youth basketball with the support of Gigantes magazine, a reference publication for basketball information in Spain, and backed by Endesa. The company’s commitment to promoting sports and its values has materialized in projects like the Gigantes camps, which will bring together nearly 4,000 students this summer, or Basket Girlz, focused on promoting gender equality.
