FAQ

Hoop Dreams is the perfect place for you if;

• you love basketball
• you want to improve your basketball skills
• you like fun traditional camp activities
• you want to spend a week with other athletes that share a passion for basketball

Hoop Dream Basketball Camp days are divided into 6 periods.

Periods 1,2,3: Basketball periods. Campers participate in skills, full-court drills, team practices, and games.

Period 4: Off-court activity. Campers participate in a water or land activity. 

Lunch: Personal choice. Athletes choose their activity preference during lunch break.

Period 5: Personal choice. Athletes are allowed to participate in any land or water activity of choice (they must sign up). Athletes can also play pick-up on the courts, shoot around, or work with a coach one-on-one. They can also relax at the beach or hang out with friends.

Period 6: Our evening program. Varies between basketball and traditional camp programming

We have approximately 120 camper spots available each week of camp.

Whether you are coming on your own, with a friend, or in a large group, you’ll be comforted to know that you’ll be placed in a cabin and section with other campers your own age. Campers live in cabins with 12 campers and 2 coaches.

Our coaches include university, college, and high school players. They are trained to teach basketball using our Elite Camps curriculum. We ensure proper training for our staff that incorporates over 400 safety standards set by our provincial governing body, the Ontario Camping Association.

We love that our athletes want to attend Hoop Dreams with their friends and teammates. We can guarantee that your athlete will be placed in a cabin with at least one friend if the friends are within one year of age. We can accommodate up to 12 athletes in a cabin.

Note: On-court friend requests will depend on the breakdown of athletes and their skill levels. In our effort to create a challenging game experience through well-balanced teams, we cannot guarantee friend requests on the court. But we will try our best.

Absolutely. Camp is the best place to make new friends. Many children come without a friend.

During registration, there is a place to identify friend requests. If you need to add friends after registration, give us a call in the office and we can update your profile.

Don’t worry if your level of basketball experience is different from your friends. Hoop Dreams is for all levels and our campers represent the full spectrum of skill level from House League to high level Rep.

Players are divided on the court by age and skill and coaches make sure campers are matched up with similarly skilled players.

How do we create teams at Hoop Dreams?

Athletes are divided by skill level to create teams. Matching players by similar skill level is important so our athletes feel challenged and successful within game situations.

Athletes and parents often want to know how our athletes are separated on the court. First, we separate by age, and then we separate by skill level.

Because Hoop Dreams is a signup program, we welcome diverse basketball skill levels within camp. Our staff is trained to teach and develop our athletes based on their current skill levels and gameplay abilities.

We now offer high performance streams every week of the summer. Athletes are assessed on their first day of camp and placed into groups that fit their age and skill level.

We follow public health guidelines. Staff and Athletes, will not be required to show proof of vaccination.

We will update families on our Covid procedures by June 1. Public health guidelines change quickly and we want to ensure that our protocols are current. A camp nurse is on site at all times.

We do have the ability to accommodate athletes who need food to be dairy-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, and other food challenges.

We do not offer kosher or halal options. Some families select the vegetarian meal choice, or they provide kosher meat that our chef can cook for their child.

“Lights out” is at 10 pm for all campers. 

One staff is in each cabin overnight from 10 pm until morning.

Yes, bussing is optional. 

We are a tech-free camp. Campers are not allowed to bring a phone to camp. 

We do not recommend that parents call campers as it exacerbates homesickness. If your child has a birthday while at camp, we do allow a phone call on the morning of the birthday after breakfast.

We post pictures daily, which allows you to see your athlete every day.

We also provide a way for you to write your kids daily, and they can write you back. You simply email us a letter. We print the letters each morning and give them to our campers at breakfast.

Before camp, we will send you a letter template that you can print for your child. Your child can give their written letter to their coach, and we will scan and email it to you.

Athletes do need to complete a swim test. If they do not pass the swim test because they cannot swim, that is ok. Athletes can still swim in our swim area with a life jacket and participate in all water activities. We would just put a staff in the boats with them.

All athletes and staff must wear lifejackets when participating in all water sports activities.

Bus pick-up and drop-off happen at the Elite Training Centre in Toronto: 20 Scarsdale Rd, Building B (near Leslie & York Mills).

You can arrive at camp between 11am-12pm on our drop-off day.

You can pick up your athlete between 9:30-10:30 am on the pick-up day.

For campers staying more than one week, you can select our laundry option. Laundry will be completed for your athlete on change-over day.

Note: Laundry service is not available for campers only staying at camp for one week.

Camp activities include climbing wall, beach volleyball, archery, tubing, canoe, kayak, SUP, waterski or wakeboard, basketball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, and gaga.

We follow OCA (Ontario Camping Association) Guidelines which states that for every 25 campers you need 1 lifeguard. All of our campers and staff are required to wear a lifejacket any time they are outside of our guarded swim area. Campers and staff are swim tested on arrival.