By Patrick Hayes

Back in May, I wrote about Grand Rapids native and former Wake Forest basketball standout Kyle Visser, who now plays professionally in Europe. Visser mentioned his annual big man camp in that story. He held his camp this month and Steve Kaminski of MLive talked to Visser and some of his campers about what they learned:

“This will definitely will be beneficial,” said Scott Prawdzik, a 6-7 West Catholic senior. “There aren’t a lot of camps for big guys. You don’t get a lot of camps where you have local stars like this, and you don’t get to hear their story and learn what they learned. You just don’t get to hear that.

“Usually, when we go to camps, we get drills and skills for the whole group. But here, it’s just for us. They taught us about the eight-move set, and that will help a lot. They have eight simple moves that you have to do, and they can get you anywhere.”

Forest Hills Eastern’s Jacob Karafa is participating in the camp, too. Karafa, 6-5, did not play last year so he could concentrate on getting in shape for track, but he missed the game so much that he decided to return for his senior year. Karafa said Visser’s instruction should help him make up for missing last year.

“I’m going into my senior year, and I’m hoping to gain some post moves that I can use,” Karafa said. “I learned some new post moves that I can use, and now I have to master them. I also have learned a better sense of controlling the ball.”