San José & Monterrey, Costa Rica

In 2006, Basketball as a Mission was put in contact with Padre Carlos Rojas, who is the Monsignor at the Parroquia de Guadalupe in San José, Costa Rica. Since then, Padre Carlos and a couple of volunteers from the parish have helped to arrange for the camps in Costa Rica since 2007.

Colleen Aguilar with a few campers

June of 2007 marked the first of many trips to the bustling capitol of San José, Costa Rica. Basketball as a Mission coordinated with a local school to hold a week long camp for 100 children ranging from 8 to 15 years of age. Since there were only seven coaches, the camp was split into two sessions, which demanded a full day of teaching and energy. The school was not close enough to the facility where the camp was held, so the church had a bus arranged to take the children to camp each day. The BaaM camp was so successful that it was recognized by the local newspapers.

In 2008, Basketball as a Mission returned to San José, Costa Rica, where they worked with children from another local school. There were about 75 children that attended the camp each day, and their was an impressive ratio of two campers per coach.

San José saw the biggest group of coaches in 2010, where Basketball as a Mission returned with a group of 12. Coaches stayed with the Hermanas Clarisas in San José, and we thank them for their hospitality.

Colleen, Barbara, and Andres talk to campers about self-defense.

The trend of growth continued this past summer in 2010. Not only did 12 coaches return, but Basketball as a Mission held two camps in Costa Rica, one in San José and one in the Northern rural town of Monterrey. A three day clinic was held in Monterrey and even though the time was short, the impact was tremendous on both the coaches and the children. The first day only contained thirty campers, but as word spread the camp grew to about fifty campers. Basketball as a Mission looks forward to returning to Monterrey for a full week long camp in the future.

Basketball as a Mission is not only growing in numbers of campers and coaches, but also broadening the services provided. A new element was added to the 2010 Costa Rica camps, a self-defense portion taught by representatives from Elite Martial Arts Training Center. Andres Haro and Barbara Dalla Riva taught the campers self defense techniques such as basic combatives, and wrist and choke escapes. These lessons reinforce the principles taught during basketball camp and prepare children for the realistic dangers they may incur.

Padre Carlos, Betsy Rojas, y Nana Barrantes visited from CR.

Costa Rica created a myriad of life long friendships. Just recently in 2010, Padre Carlos Rojas, Betsy Zuniga and Adriana Barrantes flew to the Untied States to be part of the wedding of Colleen Aguilar. Many of the coaches still keep in contact with Padre Carlos and the “Ticos” via email, Facebook and Myspace.