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Numerous regional high school basketball teams such as Southland Academy, Deerfield-Windsor, Terrell Academy and other teams from across the state of Georgia descended upon Americus this past week for the annual Round Ball Roundup Camp.

This camp, which has been going on for 24 years, is a summer camp for high school basketball teams and this is the 14^th straight year that it has been held here in Americus. The camp is being held at venues such as Southland Academy, Georgia Southwestern State University and the old Americus-Sumter High School gymnasium.

Two weeks ago, there was a Round Ball Roundup camp for middle school kids teams and there was a team camp for high school girls, which took place Monday through Wednesday of last week. The boys’ team camp took place Thursday through Saturday.

“It’s a team camp and we put a schedule together,” Camp Director Ryan Garnto said. “The idea of it is that coaches get as many games as possible with their players before the upcoming season. Kids that may have been on the bench the year before get playing time. You get to see what you’re going to look like for the upcoming year and you get a bunch of different games to show the product.”

Each team gets about three to four games a day and each game consists of 20-minute halves with a running clock. For the Southland Academy Raiders and their head coach, Kevin Douglas, this type of environment was extremely helpful, as they get ready for the upcoming 2024-25 season. “It’s very beneficial,” Douglas said. “ Every time you get an opportunity to play the game, every game is a game where you can get one percent better as a player and as a team, so it’s definitely beneficial and we’re young, but at the same time, the more they play, the better off we will be.”