Basketball talent from around the area put their skills to the test at Lamar basketball's Rising Prospect Camp.
High school players traveled from Houston and Louisiana to compete against local talent and find out what Lamar University has to offer.
The Rising Prospect Camp exposed high school athletes to a true recruitment experience. Athletes performed in front of talent evaluators and scouts. They also got to see themselves in Big Red's uniform in a camp photoshoot.
This is the first time Coach Alvin Brooks and his staff have had the opportunity to hold a camp like the Rising Prospect Camp. He says this camp helped athletes become familiar with the program so they know it is an option.
"The thing is we've got really talented young talent here and so that's how you grow our program," said Coach Brooks. "That's how you grow the brand, Lamar basketball brand. It's a process and so summer camps are used to utilize branding and marketing your program, acquiring new talent, getting a list of new names. We've got classes from 2026, 2025, 24, 23, all here on campus. It's great."
Aaron Proctor is Lamar basketball's director of operations. He was a big factor in organizing the camp.
Proctor says the program thought there would only be 50 kids signed up but that quickly doubled.
"We haven't been where we wanted to be within recent memory but Lamar is not a name that people aren't accustomed to," said Proctor. "This gives us an opportunity to build that back up, especially having kids in the gym. Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program but relationships runs parallel to that, so we are able to establish that with a lot of these kids, with parents, and just with the local community to let them know that we are out here."