At Camp Seneca Lake, every player was a MVP

MVP, the Jewish orthodox boys basketball camp at Camp Seneca Lake, celebrated its sixth consecutive season of record breaking registration and enrollment.

Over 200 MVP players, on 30 teams in four divisions, participated in over 120 games over the course of five days. The games were competitive and exciting with many last-minute buzzer-beater endings.

This year’s MVP featured players with all levels of playing ability. Third graders joined MVP along with players in grades four through 12, representing many schools in the tri-state area including Yavneh, Noam, YNJ, Moriah, Ashar, TABC, Frisch, JEC, HAFTR, HALB, HANC, North Shore Hebrew Academy, YCQ, Har Torah, SAR, Ramaz, Derech HaTorah, MTA, Rambam, MAY, DRS, and Kushner. Some of the counselor/coaches were former MVP players themselves and were able to give over their experiences to the MVP players from their years at MVP

Each day was filled with a packed schedule starting with Shachris, followed by breakfast, and then a series of activities including conditioning, clinics, swim (including the GIANT slide), league games, after lunch visits to Seneca Sprinkles Ice Cream Parlor, 3-on-3 and 2-on-2 competitions and much more. New events added this year were the 1-on-1 and knockout competitions for each grade.

After dinner, all MVP players went to the shul for Mincha and Maariv. Following the night games, and nightly individual skills contests for each grade (and a movie for juniors), the late night barbeques gave all the MVP players, across all the divisions and schools, the opportunity to interact and meet up with each other. The X Box Room was open to allow the players to wind down after a full day of on the court activities.

On the final day, championship games for each division were played at beautiful Seneca Park (featuring stadium seating), as well as on the blue and orange MVP courts, followed by closing award ceremonies in which over 100 trophies were distributed.

In reviewing this year’s MVP Experience, Judah Rhine, who is co-director with Irv Bader, stated that “this was by far our best season ever. There is something here for everyone. Every camper is truly an MVP.”