HAMPTON, VA (WTKR)- Marquis Godwin spent his entire playing career in the 757- high school at Hampton, then college hoops for Old Dominion and Hampton University.
Now he's helping to shape the skills of his city's next generation.
Godwin hosted his inaugural Next Season Skills Academy on Thursday at Boo Williams Sportsplex. The camp is geared towards young players in grades 3-8.
"The player development lane I've been in has been giving me an outlet to help the youth and give them a platform to understand what it takes to get where they want to get to," he said. "Me being a person who's from here and who's done everything that they want to do, that's what sparked me to want to do this and I just want to change the landscape of grassroots basketball for the youth in my area."
Since his playing days came to an end, Godwin has moved onto the coaching ranks. He was an assistant coach for the Lafayette High School girls team before his most recent position as head of player development at Oak Hill Academy. In addition to having been where the young players are currently, his coaching experience has given him even more knowledge to pass down.
"I've been on that mountain for countless hours, sleeping in the office, picking people's brains who have been a part of the game," he noted. "I'm very grateful for the opportunity Oak Hill gave me to be on that platform because without them I don't think I would be as sharp and confident as I am now and there's a lot more room to grow, so I'm very thankful for that."
Godwin says his plan is to always cap his camp at 60 players in hopes of getting each more individual attention and reps during sessions. Some of the Peninsula's top talent is helping to serve as coaches, such as recent Menchville graduate Maddie Leach and Denbigh product Nasir Johnson.
"This if a five-star experience at one of these camps," said Leach, who's head to play college basketball at James Madison in the fall. "It wasn't like this during the ones I would play in so being able to help Marquis out and do this and help the kids from this area is really special to me."
The staff hopes to give the youth a memorable and valuable experience and the goal is to have them leaving with some lessons that stick with them throughout their basketball journeys.
"Have confidence in yourself. Have confidence and belief that, no matter what anybody tells you, you can accomplish it," Godwin said of something he hopes the campers take from the session. "Negativity is going to come your way in every angle of life, but you've just got to make sure you keep a level head and get to the next day."
"I just want them to fall in love with the process," added Leach. "It's easy to get caught up in the rankings and the outcomes, but if you can fall in love with working hard and just getting better every day then you're going to go places."
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