A Look Inside the 2025 GFS Community Basketball & Enrichment Camp

Spend any amount of time in the Field House or Scattergood gyms during GFS’ Community Basketball & Enrichment (CBE) camp, and one thing is immediately clear: everyone there loves basketball.

In pauses between drills and games, campers and counselors shoot hoops, work on their handling and dribbling, or quick-fire pass balls to each other; the sounds of basketballs and sneakers on the squeaky floor—and the energy shared by all involved—never stops.

CBE has been part of GFS’ summer offerings and community education programming since 1971, when it was founded by former GFS teacher, administrator, and varsity basketball coach, David Felsen, Sr. Originally, it was called the Germantown Friends Summer Basketball and Reading Clinic; Felsen started it in response to the city’s recreation cutbacks. 

“Basketball and reading are two passions of mine, and I came up with the idea of putting the two together,” Felsen remembered. “One of the great things about working at GFS is that when I pitched them the idea, the school gave me terrific support with the use of the Morris Shed, Smith Gym, and Friends Free Library for the Clinic.”

Enrollment that first summer was 56 kids, split between students from GFS and other independent schools and kids from Germantown and the surrounding Northwest Philly neighborhoods. In 2025, an average of 97 students from rising third through rising ninth grade attended each week for four weeks, and while the camp has evolved, it has stuck close to its roots of combining basketball with academic instruction. 

“I’m extremely proud of the program and the fact that it’s still going and is in keeping with the school’s philosophy and tangible interest in the community,” Felsen said. 

Jamil Pines ’15 is a program alum and has been a CBE coach for the past six years; he is also the Admissions Application Coordinator and varsity boys basketball coach at GFS. 

“It's sort of full circle, being able to give back to what I once was,” he said.

Pines has observed the caliber of playing among the campers elevating over the years, which he attributes to the many more ways for kids to get involved with basketball through camps, club teams, and Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) leagues.
 
“The talent has always been there, especially in Philly, but the game of basketball and the opportunities have definitely grown since I was in high school,” he said. 

 
With that in mind, the basketball instruction at CBE is at a high level, even for the younger campers. The majority of the 35 counselors and coaches are former CBE campers, and many of them play for their high school or college basketball teams.

Each day kicks off with the older group (“the NBA”) in the gym doing warm ups and stretches, and practicing ball-handling skills. The younger players (“the NCAA”) start with their classroom time.

For the NBA campers, the group is broken up into four stations which they rotate through. After an hour or so, the groups switch, then meet back up before lunch for competitions, like one-on-one and free throw contests, for which the campers earn Hot Shot points. After lunch, the campers reassemble for three-on-three and five-on-five games. 

Every Friday, there’s an awards ceremony, where the winners of the various competitions receive medals and the winners of the group games are presented with trophies. New this year are two non-basketball-related awards, the Classroom Champion and a Citizenship Award. 

“These acknowledge kids who are doing really good work in the classroom, and recognize kids who are just doing the right things, like helping to clean up or showing someone new where the bathroom is,” Pines said.  

On the classroom side, GFS fifth grade teacher Serita Lachesis plans the daily instruction, which she shares with two other teachers. Each day, the campers receive 20-minute lessons in science, math, reading, and life and study skills; often they’ll do group projects like the ever-popular egg drop experiment. 

Thomas Averett, a rising sixth grader at GFS and CBE camper, said the egg drop was a top highlight of his classroom time this summer. He described how he and his team constructed their egg’s protection:

“We put fabric under the egg, so it would cushion the fall. And then we had a bag around it, and tin foil to protect it more,” he reported. “It worked pretty well—it survived the drop from the first floor but broke when we dropped it from the second floor.”

Lachesis noted that while the teachers are prepared with lesson plans, they sometimes shift their focus to match what the kids are interested in. For instance, this summer, a lot of the campers wanted to talk about goal-setting. So, Lachesis pivoted to make space for that.

“We spent a lot of time with the kids covering focus and planning. We helped them work through the question of, ‘How do you become singularly focused on something and strive for excellence?’” she said.

Among a handful of tweaks and changes to the program, Lachesis is most excited about the addition of the academic Hot Shot points and the Classroom Championship award that was introduced this year. 

“I think what these awards reinforce is that basketball shouldn't just be in isolation. You want to be a really strong athlete, but you also want to be a strong student. They go hand in hand, and the kids respond to that,” she said.

A bigger change for CBE is the departure of Shawn Werdt, GFS Physical Education teacher and former boys varsity basketball coach, who has served as the camp’s director since 2014. His positive energy and supportive coaching style helped reinvigorate and reshape the program. 

“Shawn has inspired, led, and served our school community in many ways,” said Katie Bergstrom Mark, Senior Director of Athletics & Physical Education. “His influence will continue to be felt in the gym, on the court, and in the lives of the many students and families he has mentored and impacted over the years.” 

Though changes in coaching and leadership are to be expected in a long-running program like this one, the camp is in a stable financial position to operate in perpetuity and provide financial aid for some campers. This is thanks to an endowed fund for Community Basketball & Enrichment, spearheaded by Tom Loder ’76, in celebration of the program’s 50th anniversary in 2021. The fund now provides financial assistance for approximately 75% of campers each year. 

And this is important in Philadelphia, where affordable, enriching summer activities are still so necessary. CBE counselor Jason Greene is an alum of the camp, a graduate of Abington Friends School’s class of 2025, and a rising college freshman at American University. After years of involvement with CBE, he appreciates the camp most for providing a gathering space for kids.

“This is a good outlet for them and they get to make friendships, too,” he said.

Layla Jackson, a rising seventh grader at Sandy Run Middle School, has attended CBE for the past two years. She’s made lots of friends, many of whom she recognizes from other basketball-related workshops and clinics she’s attended as part of her AAU travel team. On the cusp of trying out for her middle school’s team, what she values most about CBE has been the chance to keep sharpening her basketball skills with awesome coaches and counselors. 

“CBE camp has pushed me farther than I thought I could go,” Jackson said. “And it's been hard, but the coaches have helped me do things I didn't think I could do.”