By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Kenney Shields may have closed the book on his basketball coaching career in 2004, but he never stopped working with young people who enjoy the sport. This week, he conducted a free summer basketball camp at the Fort Thomas Armory gymnasium for the 30th consecutive year.
“I look forward to this a whole lot,” said Shields, 74. “I was always one of those coaches who loved teaching and this gives me a chance to do that.”
Boys and girls in grades 1-8 attended this week’s camp. There was one session in the morning and another in the afternoon each day. Several of Shields’ grandchildren took part in the fun. Many of the other participants had last names that were familiar to Shields because he taught or coached their parents while he was at St. Thomas and Highlands high schools. He went on to become men’s head basketball coach at Northern Kentucky University from 1988 until his retirement in 2004.
Like most basketball camp directors, Shields organizes drills and contests designed to improve individual skills and then lets the campers play half-court games. It’s what happens during the breaks that make his camp something special. That’s when the long-time coach gathers the players around him and shares stories about his career and what the game of basketball has taught him.
“I always tell them that your attitude will decide your altitude,” Shields said. “One of the best players I ever coached (at NKU) had a bad attitude and after much trying I had to kick him off the team. People asked me after we were (national) runner-up twice what would’ve happened if we had him on those teams and I tell them, ‘If we had him with a good attitude, we’d have won three straight national championships.’ That’s how good this player was, but he didn’t have any self-discipline.”
Taking NKU teams to the NCAA Division II national championship game in 1996 and 1997 were shining moments in Shields’ 16 seasons as coach of the Norse. He also had a very successful high school coaching career, compiling a 460-257 record in 10 seasons at St. Thomas and 13 seasons at Highlands.
Shields took five teams to the Kentucky high school state tournament while he was at Highlands, but one of his favorite stories to tell during summer basketball camps involves one of his players at St. Thomas, a small parish high school that closed in the early 1970s.
“The part of my camps that’s different than anybody else’s is the stories, and I like to tell them the one about Tim Frede,” Shields said. “He got cut as a sophomore and he came to me and said, ‘Coach, don’t forget me. I’m going to be back next year.’ Well, he came back and got cut again right on the last day (of pre-season practice). But then as a senior he was our leading rebounder, our leading scorer and our MVP. Then I tell them that even Michael Jordan got cut when he was in high school. You’ve got to keep working and never give up.”
Shields said he actually began conducting basketball camps on school playgrounds in the 1960s when he worked for the Covington Recreation Department during the summer. He started the Fort Thomas Armory camp in 1985 and added more camps to his summer schedule while he was head coach at Northern Kentucky University for 16 years. He has also been a guest speaker at numerous other basketball camps in the area over the years.
“Obviously, coach Shields is the godfather of basketball coaches in the Northern Kentucky area,” said Grant Brannen, who attended summer camps at Fort Thomas Armory and NKU when he was young and is now boys’ head basketball coach at Walton-Verona High School. “I will always carry with me his quotes that he told at all his camps. He also told me he carried a cross or rosary in his pocket, and when I coached I did the same thing.”
Shields is a devout Catholic and there is often a religious theme to the talks he gives during camps. He tells young people that their list of priorities should be God, family, school and then basketball. He also encourages them to pray.
“I incorporate that into it all because that’s the way I believe,” Shields said. “That’s the other way my camp differs from other camps. It’s more than about basketball, it’s about life.”
Shields will conduct another summer camp for boys and girls of all ages on July 20-23 at Sports Of All Sorts in Florence.