Even though Talor Battle is a professional basketball player, he still makes time to give back to his community.
The former Penn State basketball standout ran his own basketball camp, the Talor Battle Basketball Camp, during the week of June 25 at Troy High School in Troy, NY. Kids grades six through 12 attended the four-day camp.
“I wanted to do it back in my city,” Battle said. “It was cool. I was expecting, like, 60 kids and over 140 showed up.”
Rich Hurley, Battle’s former high school coach who helped run the camp, said the unexpected number of kids that walked through the door on the first day was overwhelming.
“It was great watching them walk in,” Hurley said, “but it was also a little scary because space is always an issue.”
He said he kept looking around at the number of basketballs and staff personnel while all the kids entered. He was short on both. He said he even had to make his wife get more basketballs.
“The first day was insane, but after it settled, it was great,” Hurley said.
Hurley is also the president and co-founder of All Basketball Inc., which is the company that partnered with Battle to make the camp happen.
“[The camp] is something that we talked about in his playing days at Penn State,” Hurley said. “We said when [Battle] had some down time that we should get something together back home.”
Hurley said they kept in touch when Battle was overseas playing professional basketball in Europe. Battle just finished his first year of professional basketball. He first signed with the French team, Cholet, in Aug. 2011, and then with the German Telekom Baskets Bonn.
Though this was the first year for the Talor Battle Basketball Camp, both Battle and Hurley said they both would like to continue the camp for years.
“It was a great experience to give back in the game,” Battle said. “We want to make it an annual thing.”
Hurley also mentioned that he would like to bring something down to Pennsylvania, because of Battle’s relation with Penn State.
“I would love to get down to Pennsylvania,” Hurley said. “It would be great for State College, we would just need to find a facility. If Talor ran a camp down there it’ll be huge.”
Hurley said the only problem with taking the camp to State College is that they would need a facility to run it in.
Hurley said he was Battle’s high school basketball coach for three years, and admitted he was proud of how Battle ran the camp and how he’s grown over the years.
“He’s a selfless kid and always grateful,” Hurley said. “To see him talk to 250 kids was kind of neat. It was cool to sit back and watch.”
Battle is Penn State's all-time leading scorer with 2,213 career points. He had seven career 30-point games. He is also the fourth player in NCAA history to record 2,000 points, 600 rebounds and 500 assists.
The former Nittany Lion is also leaving for Las Vegas to train with the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA Summer League.
“I really hope he has the chance to make the most out of the opportunity,” Hurley said. “It’s all well-deserved and well-earned. He’s worked for everything that he’s earned and he will always give back to the community, always have time for the kids, in the NBA or overseas.”
