Stephen Curry’s elite high school camp emphasizes gender equity

Last week, he took more than 1,000 Oakland kids to an Oakland Athletics game.

This week? The Golden State Warriors guard hosts their Curry Camp, at the Olympic Club in downtown San Francisco. And, for the first time, his campers are evenly distributed: 13 boys and 13 girls.

“We’re just trying to normalize that basketball is basketball and celebrate the game,” Curry said Thursday. “My hope is to give girls who are moving up the ranks something to look forward to, to be part of that experience and to have access to me, our team and what we do.

“And also, for the boys, to give them the perspective that it’s not just them who are jumping around. Girls can do it too. And they should encourage it, celebrate it and support it. And I hope that continues throughout their careers as well.

Curry, a ‘daddy girl’ to both Riley, 10, and Ryan, 7, is a strong advocate for gender equity. He was one of the first NBA players to include girls with boys in a select camp, starting in 2018. It’s the third year he’s done it (he hasn’t held his camp these last two years due to the pandemic). A few years ago, when a young fan wrote to him expressing his disappointment that Under Armor didn’t carry his signature sneaker in girls’ sizes, Curry made sure his shoe sponsor did just that.

Curry changed the game of basketball. And in many ways, it made the game more open to girls.

“The way I play the game is relevant to the women’s game,” he said. “My skill set can be copied. It’s not about playing over the edge. Everything I do, I feel they can work and imitate. The skill work we teach boys and girls, at the same time, is something they can take home after camp is over.

Being included in camp can be a life changing experience. Just ask Azzi Fudd, who — along with Stanford’s Cameron Brink — was one of the first camp girls in 2018. Now a national name after her freshman year at UConn, Fudd is coaching this week at Curry Camp.

“It was a really eye-opening experience,” Fudd said of being a Curry camper. “When I first walked in and got all my gear, my jaw dropped. All the guys were acting cool about it, and I was just trying to contain my excitement and happiness just to be the.

Fudd remembers talking to fellow camper Jalen Green, who switched to the G League Ignite after high school and now plays for the Houston Rockets.

“I asked him, ‘So, do you all go to camps like this? Is this normal for you?’ Fudd said. “And he was like, ‘Yeah, what do you mean?’ I had never had anything like all this equipment before. It was eye-opening to see the treatment the guys are getting. It was also amazing to be at such a high level camp, to have such great coaches . Steph was doing the exercises with us. My respect for him just exploded.”

Two years later, fairness in basketball became national history when Stanford coach Ali Kershner shared a photo on social media that showed the stark differences in practice facilities between tournaments. NCAA men’s and women’s games that were taking place in separate pandemic bubbles. Oregon player Sedona Prince amplified the photo on her TikTok, sparking outrage.

Curry was not surprised by what he saw.

“Going back to my AAU team, I saw the funding of girls versus boys and how the whole system works around girls’ tournaments and boys’ tournaments,” he said. “The NCAA Tournament was like a state of the union on what was going on.”

Curry said he hopes players who come to his camp will start sharing their experience.

“And it’s starting to spill over to what’s expected, across the board,” he said.

Curry isn’t picking the 26 athletes who are among the top recruits in the high school classes of 2023 and 24, but he has a say. It sponsors AAU teams in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has a female and male camper from those teams. Some have gone through Under Armor camps, and others have been recommended by scouts and coaches Curry has worked with. His coaches for the camp include personal trainer Brandon Payne, former teammate Kent Bazemore and Hall of Famer appearances Chris Mullin, Curry’s high school coach Shonn Brown and Curry’s college coach at Davidson Bob McKillop.

On Thursday, Curry did some stretching and drills with the campers before splitting on two pitches. He also played all over the pitch with them (it’s a mystery why the kids didn’t always pass the ball to him).

The three-day camp includes dinner at International Smoke, the restaurant founded by Ayesha Curry with Michael Mina; a visit to the Chase Center and an evening at the Lucky Strike bowling alley. On the last night, campers will take a ferry to Tiburon and go to another Mina restaurant, Bungalow Kitchen.