Photos: It’s a day of victories at Beckman’s basketball camp for special needs students

Pauline Moran of Tustin gets ready to take a shot during the Beckman All-Star Basketball Camp Wednesday. (Photos Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone)

A Beckman High junior in a wheelchair, assisted by a camp coach and another player, got into position to take a shot Wednesday.

To see the slide show, please click on the first photo

Pauline Moran was shooting for the large plastic ring placed below the actual basket. In one of her final attempts of the afternoon, the student threw the ball through the target, and had a big smile on her face as she was cheered on by others.

It was a fitting way for the Beckman All-Star Basketball Camp for special needs students to end.

The camp was the third in the past year at the school conducted by former Beckman High basketball player Shubh Khandhadia and this one had the largest attendance with 21 students dealing with a wide range of disabilities.

“She really enjoyed meeting friends because she went to another school when she was in middle school, so she get to meet her old friends,” said Pauline’s mother, Pilita Moran. “She is able to enjoy and be motivated. We are so proud of her.”

“It was good to kind of end it that way,” Khandhadia said. “We wanted to give everyone a chance to shoot.”

Shortly afterwards, Khandhadia was exchanging high fives with all the campers and posing for a team picture with them to cap the two-day camp, which was free.

“It went well, we had a lot more kids from Foothill and Tustin as well this week,” Khandhadia said. “I was able to get the word out ,more so about half were new and half were returning campers. We had volunteers from the Colors Club (at Beckman) as well and they do events outside of school with special needs kids too. They know a lot of the kids and they’re pretty well versed with all of them.

“It was good to have Colors Club mixed in with basketball.”

There were plenty of basketball games. Some of the players were able to make baskets, others aimed for the ring. Some were able to make it up and down the court on their own, others were assisted. There were also bowling with basketball and flag games.

There were many smiles on the faces of the students.

“The kids like it so much, it’s good to keep doing it,” said Khandhadia. “It’s something I can do during the holidays because even though I’m graduating and moving on (to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), I would still like to come back in the holidays and run camps like this. The more you do, the easier it gets. It’s just good experience.”

The Assistance League of Tustin funded the T-shirts for the campers.

“That was a huge help,” he said.

Khandhadia’s sister, Saloni and his mother, Jagruti, also helped out along with a number of the Beckman basketball players.

The Beckman players who volunteered their time were Luke Fajardo, Jake Morrison, Dowon Kim, Sayon Ray, Elijah Lee, Joey Huebner-Chan and Drew Dougherty.

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com