PINE – Pine began hosting the Second Annual Ed Deas Basketball Camp this week at the school’s gym.

Landon Thomas, a 2002 graduate of Pine and former graduate assistant men’s basketball coach at Ole Miss, returned to coordinate the camp.

He is expected to be officially named the school’s head basketball coach in the coming weeks.

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“We try to teach all the fundamentals,” Thomas said. “Shooting, passing, dribbling and defense. We try to progress the difficulty of the drills between the age groups to give them a base for the game of basketball.”

Thomas has assisted basketball camps for all ages everywhere from Loyola of New Orleans to Tulane, Southeastern Louisiana and Ole Miss.

He began Pine’s camp last year and named it in honor of his grandfather, Ed Deas, a long-time basketball coach and principal at the school who passed away during the initial planning.

“I have always grown up watching and loving basketball and a lot of that comes from him,” Thomas said. “I can remember going to games before we did anything else. He is thought very highly in the parish and everybody respects him.”

Proceeds from the camp benefit the Ed Deas Memorial Scholarship Fund. The 2010 recipient was Cody Terrell of Pine.

The camp expanded to two weeks this year and  over 30 sponsors chipped in allowing every camper to recieve a T-shirt, basketball and camp notebook. A family awards day was held Friday.