WAVERLY

The days begin early at the Snow Valley Basketball Camp in Waverly.

First whistle is at 6:15 in the morning.

Alarm clocks an hour before that.

More than 12 hours after that first whistle one day last week, hundreds of boys basketball campers assembled in the fieldhouse at Wartburg College, sat down on the gym floor as the bouncing of basketballs silenced and Mid-Prairie basketball legend Don Showalter grabbed a microphone.

Not a yawn could be seen.

Their eyes were wide open.

Coach Show, as he is known to just about everybody not only here in this gym in Waverly and in the gym back in Mid-Prairie but also on every Team USA basketball court in the country, began to talk about FIBA, the governing body for international basketball.

Was this another Coach K story? Another gold medal story?

Or perhaps even a Mid-Prairie story from a Coach Show personal history that led to a book published this summer by Triumph Books: “Cornfields to Gold Medals.”

That’s the thing about this summer hoops tradition, built by Showalter at an eastern Iowa college where he attended after graduating from Mid-Prairie. Go here, and you’re greeted with 57 years of Mid-Prairie basketball history.

Among the 75 coaches joining Showalter in Waverly were Dave Schlabaugh, a Mid-Prairie alum and former assistant to Showalter who is now head men’s basketball coach at Cornell College, and Chris Kern, a Mid-Prairie alum who coached alongside Showalter at Mid-Prairie for 26 years.

“We have a great relationship,” said Showalter, 70, National Director of Coach Development for USA Basketball and a 10-time gold medal winner. “It’s really fun to work together.”

For one month every summer, the Snow Valley Camp becomes a Mid-Prairie reunion among these Golden Hawks from the cornfields.

“Absolutely,” Schlabaugh said with a big smile. “It’s kind of our one time of the year we get to spend, but we do get to spend about 23 nights in dorm rooms. You’re ready for it to be done, but you can’t wait for it to get started in the next year.”

“It’s great,” said Kern, a resident of Kalona who has coached at the camp for all 27 years of its Iowa existence. “Show and I were together 26 years at Mid-Prairie. I did a lot of things with him. It’s so fun to come back and do these weeks and run this camp. It means a lot. The camp is still really strong. We’re better than ever right now.”

This year’s camps feature three boys sessions and one girls session, each lasting four days in an environment that is strictly, and passionately, basketball. All of the sessions sold out to campers coming from nearly all 50 states. Coaches arrive here from across the country and overseas.

“We have a pretty high standard for our camp,” said Showalter, who worked the camps of the late UCLA coaching legend, John Wooden, for years before purchasing the Snow Valley brand following its start in California 61 years ago. “I think players that come here are players who really want to get better. It’s not a babysitting camp. I tell parents and players, this is not a camp for everybody. If you don’t love basketball, it’s probably not going to be real fun for you. If you love basketball, it’s going to be a great session.”

This year’s campers included Brady Weber, a rising junior at Mid-Prairie, and other Golden Hawk student-athletes, along with a few from Highland Middle School and High School.

Friday, the camp’s clinicians included Clay Moser, a former assistant coach at the University of Arkansas who was formerly a scout and coach with the Los Angeles Lakers.

“We get great coaching,” Showalter said. “We have coaches from really all over the world. I think the players really see it, they’re getting good coaching. We have a 7-to-1 ratio with players to coaches.”

While some summer sports camps are struggling to survive, Snow Valley has been able to maintain its popularity and sold-out sessions.

“Camps are kind of dying across the country,” Schlabaugh said. “It’s harder and harder to find good camps, hard to find good overnight camps. So we’re the largest overnight camp in the country for basketball.”

“Our first year, we had 12 coaches, 80 campers,” Kern said. “And it’s developed into this. And there’s some people said it would never go when he started it. Now we’re selling out at 375 to 400 kids a week.”

It truly is a basketball treasure, Iowa style.

And with a strong Mid-Prairie connection. Coach Show won 446 games at Mid-Prairie and led the Golden Hawks to five state tournament appearances.

“It’s hard to believe, when we were running Mid-Prairie’s camp years ago,” Kern said, “that this would develop.”

News columnist Paul Bowker can be reached at bowkerpaul1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @bowkerpaul