A NEW SPIN: Former Hun School and Princeton University basketball star Douglas Davis, right, works with a camper on his shooting form last week at the inaugural TopSpin Hoops Academy. The program was an overnight basketball camp that took place from August 12-16 on the Hun campus. (Photo Courtesy of Pete Farnsworth)

In common parlance, “top spin” usually refers to a stroke in racquet sports where the ball is hit with a rising action and then dips over the net, making it hard to return.

But for 52 underprivileged eighth and ninth graders, the term took a new meaning last week as they took part in the inaugural TopSpin Hoops Academy on the campus of the Hun School.

The program was an overnight basketball camp that took place from August 12-16, supported by the not-for-profit TopSpin charity organization, formed in 2009 and dedicated to providing necessary resources for under served youth to succeed.

Hun boys’ basketball head coach Jon Stone, who served as a director of the camp, noted that the on-court sessions were just the beginning of the lessons imparted to the campers.

“The idea of the camp was to use basketball as a hook to teach them more than just basketball,” said Stone, noting that the campers came from New York City, Philadelphia, the Perth Amboy area, Monmouth County, Trenton, Ewing, and Atlantic City.

It took a group effort by Stone and some friends to get the program off the ground.

“It was an idea that Pete Farnsworth and I started talking about two or three years ago,” said Stone, noting that Farnsworth is a co-founder of TopSpin and a former senior vice president of the NBA.

“We both realized we had a mutual friend, Ed Pinckney, the guy who graduated from Villanova and played on its first national championship team. He had a nice NBA career, playing mainly with the Boston Celtics, and he has been an assistant coach for many years. The three of us were the impetus behind the camp.”

While playing basketball was a big part of the camp, there was a lot of time devoted to classroom work and guest lectures.

“We had stations in the morning followed by lunch, followed by classroom work which was basically leadership, conflict resolution, writing, and  a little bit about community service,” said Stone, whose main duties included finding the counselors, organizing the daily routine, and finding the kids through local organizations and coaches while Farnsworth focused on fundraising through his ties with TopSpin.

“Then we would do more basketball and then we brought in a series of lecturers to come and talk to them. Then there was more basketball.”

Lecturers include NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum, former Rutgers standout and NBA player Hollis Copeland, former NBA player and current Philadelphia 76ers front office employee Brandon D. Williams, and WNBA legend Swin Cash. Other hoops luminaries who appeared at the camp to coach and talk included former University of Hartford and NBA star Vin Baker and former St. John’s standout and NBA player Felipe Lopez.

“The lectures for most of these people were about life skills with a little bit of their background story, a bit of who they are, where they came from, and how they made it,” said Stone.

In Stone’s view, the campers benefitted from exposure to the varied roster of speakers.

“I think it went pretty well, some were more engaged than others in the off the court stuff, but the kids all got something out of it,” added Stone.

“There were certain themes with all of the speakers but they all talked a little differently; I think they all responded well.”

Having pulled everything together to launch the program, Stone is hoping it will be an annual event.

“It was a lot of work but a lot of fun, “ said Stone. “We think it was an overall success and we are already starting to think about things we would change and plans for next year.”