NORTH ANDOVER — It's so much more than basketball.
That's what coach Bert Hammel says as he watches the organized chaos that is 150 teens doing layups and drills on the ball courts at Merrimack College.
"Show me some D," he yells over to one team playing five on five, as he breaks from making plans on his cell phone. "That's right."
Hammel, for the 28th year, is running the Academic Basketball Awareness Camp on the college campus this week. The longtime Merrimack basketball coach started the overnight program with the Lawrence Boys & Girls Club in order to give back to a community that has embraced him over the years.
The teenagers, most of them from Lawrence, have come to camp to improve their hoop skills, but organizers hope they'll leave with some life skills they might need in the future.
Many of them are kids that could go either way in life.
On Tuesday, Hammel brought in three inmates from the Correctional Alternative Center in Lawrence — "The Farm" — to talk about making the right choices. He admits it may be a little extreme, but it got the message across.
"They've gone through a lot and they warned us," 17-year-old Jose Pena said yesterday. "You need to hear stuff like that. They said they wish they could be back where we are, playing basketball, having fun."
Pena, a senior at Central Catholic High School and Lawrence native, has been coming to the program for two years, after a coach recommended it to him. Pena said camp "paid off for me."
"I've learned the fundamentals. But what's important is they really care about you here," the Central basketball forward said. "It's great because you have Lawrence High and Central kids and yet there's no rivalry here. It's all brothers."
The program has become somewhat of a fraternity.
The students, ages 9 to 18, spend their mornings attending team-building workshops, participating in academic bowls and listening to guest speakers. Then it's basketball until bedtime.
They stay in dorms and eat in the college cafeteria. They receive shirts and gym shorts, and the team with the most points at the end of the week receives ABA watches.
The students, who are split into franchises, can earn points toward a prize during the week for not only shining on the court, but for showing initiative, helping out teammates and even just being courteous to others.
Former ABA campers who have made names for themselves in the community typically come back to speak. There's a long list to pick from — teachers, police officers, business executives, social workers. Others just stop by to say hello or sit out in a lawn chair and watch an afternoon of practice.
"You bring in the good examples. You want these kids to see both sides," Hammel said. "They see men who have made the right choices off the court."
One of them is Rick Nault, who has been coming to camp since he was 9 years old, during the camp's inaugural year.
Since then, he has only missed one year.
"This is where I'm from," said Nault, now the Central basketball coach and associate dean of students. "I'm no different from these kids. I had to work hard. ... You see the young faces and you know they'll be leaders at camp, leaders in the community some day."
Including Nault, Hammel has 25 coaches helping him, guys who once went through the program and come back every year ready to get the students in shape.
Matt Cavanaugh, 17, of Lowell, said they are beat by the end of the four-day week.
"They push us real hard but it's worth it," he said.
New York resident James Downs, 15, added: "It's war on the court, but afterward, in the dorms, you make so many friends."
The camp will hold an awards ceremony tonight at the college's Rogers Center at 5 p.m. where they will honor the students and induct three people into the ABA Hall of Fame.
"This is so unique and so special. People outside just don't understand," Hammel said. "Love is an overused word, but that's what we have here. It's a brotherhood, a family." The program has grown over the years, as well as its waiting list. This year it carries 150 names on it.
