At Azzi Fudd's basketball camp, basketball isn't her focus

It’s a rainy Sunday at Coventry High School, where Azzi Fudd is holding her first-ever public basketball camp in the state of Connecticut. While she might be the headliner, Fudd has plenty of help: Her parents are running around to keep everything organized while her brothers coach the youngsters at their respective stations.

A few of Fudd’s UConn teammates are on hand, too. Jana El Alfy is teaching one group proper shooting form. Inês Bettencourt is working with another on layup drills. Paige Bueckers floats around and at one point when the smallest kid at the camp makes a shot, she picks him up and whirls him around in celebration.

Fudd is nowhere to be seen in the two gyms — or anywhere near a basketball for that matter. That’s where she’d be in her element. Instead, she’s at the end of a long, dark hallway — and she’s well outside her comfort zone.

Throughout the day, the kids rotate through a series of stations — shooting, dribbling, defense, etc. But on one stop, they sit around a table with Fudd for a Q&A session and then get a chance to take a photo with her.

The questions range from “What’s your favorite part about playing at UConn?” to “How old are you?”

“How old do you think I am?” Fudd responds to the latter.

“29!” Comes the reply.

The 20-year-old Fudd’s jaw drops in horror and she quickly corrects the record.

This isn’t a one-sided forum, though. While the campers have the opportunity to ask Fudd questions, she also sends some in their direction as well.

She starts out by asking where everyone is from. There’s plenty from Coventry, a majority from elsewhere in Connecticut and then a handful from out of state among the 70 or so campers in attendance.

“I don’t know any of these places you guys are telling me,” Fudd laughs during a sit-down with kids from the likes of Cheshire, Hebron and Oxford.

It’s an odd juxtaposition: Fudd’s name headlines the camp, yet she spends all three hours off the basketball court.

“It feels wrong,” she said. “I wish I could be at every station with all the kids but I like getting to know all of them, getting to actually speak to every single one of them even if it's only for a little bit.”

Fudd readily admits she puts herself in an uncomfortable spot with both the Q&A session and the camp as a whole. She doesn’t like public speaking — “I'm a Communications major and I hate speaking in front of people. It doesn't make sense,” — and yet that’s all she does during the course of the three-hour clinic.

At the beginning, Fudd gathers everyone at center court to thank them for coming and introduces the coaches. El Alfy and Bettencourt are both there to help even though Fudd only asked them to do so the night before. Bueckers didn’t even need an invite — she came on her own prerogative.

During the small group chats, Fudd isn’t just trying to pass the time. Some groups are plenty chatty but with others, she has to pull questions out of them. On one occasion, a little girl told her that she’s never been to a UConn game. As the session broke up, Fudd located the girl’s parents in an effort to convince them to change that.

As the camp finishes, everyone is back at center court. Fudd begins to talk before her mom, Katie, cuts in to ask her to speak louder so the kids in back can hear — no easy task for the soft-spoken Fudd. During the small group sessions, Fudd learned that one girl was celebrating her birthday that day, so she had her come up to the front so everyone could sing “Happy Birthday”.

She closes by telling everyone that when they come to a UConn game this season, they need to make sure they say hi to her.

That, Fudd believes, is what these camps are about. She could undoubtedly help each and every kid out on the basketball court by tweaking their shooting form or providing a little inspiration, but she knows building a personal connection and humanizing herself will provide a more lasting impact.

“It's important for them to get to ask what they want to ask it, to hear my voice, to see me look them in the eyes and know that I'm a real person,” Fudd explained. “I'm not just this person they go watch at games, see on the TV. I am a real person.”

“At games, they can wave to me but I'm not sitting there talking to them,” she added. “So I just think that time is special.”

In the end, it’s all worth it which is why Fudd’s willing to step outside her comfort zone. It’s also why she’ll continue doing local basketball camps on an annual basis where she’s nowhere near a ball or the court.

“Just seeing their excitement and having the parents tell me how much it meant to them and their kids, it’s definitely something that I want to do again,” Fudd said.