Gracie Beimesche said former Kentucky men’s basketball player Jacob Toppin is her favorite Wildcat because “he’s tall like me.”
Cole Taylor, meanwhile, prefers football.
“But I also like basketball,” he said. “My dad, my grandpa and a bunch of my relatives played football.”
Beimesche and Taylor were two of at least 50 children in grades 3-8 who spent part of Saturday at Sam Vinson’s Skills Camp at Tower Park Armory in Fort Thomas, where they learned basketball basics and got autographs from Vinson and Northern Kentucky University teammates LJ Wells, Hubertas Pivorius, Cole Sherman and Michael Bradley.
OrthoCincy Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, Kelsey Chevrolet of Greendale, Indiana and the City of Fort Thomas sponsored the second annual event. Vinson and friends earned money under the NCAA’s Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) guidelines.
“We’re a longtime partner with Northern Kentucky University Athletics, so it’s a natural fit for us to partner with these athletes, trying to do something for the community,” OrthoCincy marketing director Steve Krider said. “… These kids look up to these guys, they go to their games, they see them on TV.”
The camp was Vinson’s second.
“When NIL first started, I always wanted to do something to give back to the community a little bit,” Vinson said. “… I’m planning on doing it, I’m thinking, every year in the summer.”
Vinson, a 2021 Highlands alumnus and NKU junior, is also giving part of his proceeds to the Michelle Chalk Scholarship Fund, which creates grants for graduating high school seniors, and Nevels Fitness in Newport.
Chalk, 15, died Aug. 1, 2017 when a tree fell on her while she was in a hammock at a friend’s house. She and Vinson were Highlands Middle School classmates and friends.
Vinson wasn’t certain, but he thinks he was at Highlands High’s gymnasium when he heard about what happened, and he said that day crosses his mind years later.
“Also, when I had the idea of a camp, that’s the first thing I thought of was I want to give to their foundation,” Vinson said.
Saturday’s campers did footwork, ball handling and shooting drills and played 5-on-5 relays. Unlike Taylor, Mac Ketter of Fort Thomas proclaimed basketball as her favorite sport all day long.
“When I was little, me and my grandpa used to play basketball; he had a court,” Ketter said. “He would help me with dunks.”
Bradley, a 23-year-old graduate transfer from Division II Mercyhurst University, jokingly said he felt “a little bit” old.
“Just to see how young they are and how much energy (they have),” Bradley said.
Beimesche decisively said UK is her favorite team.
‘Cause I live in Kentucky,” she said.
If you wish to donate to the Michelle Chalk Scholarship Fund, visit michellechalkscholarshipfund.org.