Cousins meet for first time at FGCU basketball camp

Alico Arena hosted 116 girls last week for Florida Gulf Coast University Women's Basketball Camp.

The location might as well have been Reunion Arena for Raquel McCagg and Kristin White.

Separated by 1,300 miles —McCagg lives in Denver, Colo., and White is from Pisgah, Ala. — the Eagles camp served as a family bridge for the pair of teenagers whose grandparents live in Fort Myers.

Similarities between McCagg and White go beyond the fact that both play forward on their high school varsity teams and wear No. 3.

They are also cousins who — until last week — had never met or spoken to each other.

So when White, 16, stepped off her first-ever airplane trip a couple days before the FGCU camp started and met McCagg, 15, there was — not surprisingly — a moment of brief awkwardness.

"We didn't know what to say to each other when we first met," said White.

By the end of the four-day camp, though, the pair had become new chums, promising to stay in touch via e-mail and to keep tabs on each other's basketball progress.

McCagg will be a sophomore at Kent Denver School, where she earned all-league honorable mention as a freshman.

White is headed into her junior year at Pisgah High, where she was part of a state championship team as a freshman in 2005. Last season Pisgah returned to the title game where White scored eight points, grabbed six rebounds and blocked one shot in the finale, but her team lost by two points.

Both girls have lofty goals, aspiring to play Division I college basketball. White would love to become a Lady Vol at Tennessee while McCagg's eyes are on Stanford.

McCagg has Division I genes. Her father, David, attended Cypress Lake High School and went on to become a world champion swimmer and All-American at Auburn University in the late 1970s, missing out on a chance to compete in the Olympics when the U.S. government boycotted the 1980 Games.

The cousins' appearance at FGCU's camp was not by coincidence. Their grandfather, Peter McCagg, arranged the entire week, noting benefits for the girls came on and off the court.

"By the end of the trip, they were inseparable. That made the whole thing worthwhile," he said.

Grandpa McCagg, who unfortunately couldn't watch his granddaughters at the camp because he was home recovering from hip replacement surgery, paid for the girls' airfare and camp fees. It was money well spent, said the girls, who not only had the chance to meet for the first time but also hone their basketball skills under the tutelage of Eagles head coach Karl Smesko.

Photo by KEVIN JOHNSON, Banner

Raquel McCagg of Colorado, left, and Kristin White of Alabama are cousins who met for the first time at last week's FGCU Women's Basketball Camp.

"He's a very good coach," said White.

Smesko, assistant coaches LeAnn Freeland and Brian Crislip, current Eagles Katie Schrader and Chelsea Dermyer, and former players Alex Kwiecinska, Robyn Swain and Roman Brown guided the largest-ever group in FGCU's four years of camps.

This was the first time the camp hosted players overnight. McCagg and White were among 80 campers who stayed in dormitories on campus. McCagg said she was impressed with the facilities.

"And the palm trees," she added.

Meals served as timeouts to what was otherwise a full menu of basketball instruction, drills and games for campers who ranged from grade four to high school seniors.

"Seven or eight hours of strictly basketball every day," said Smesko. "By the time they're done with the day, they're worn out."

Smesko estimated about 90 percent of the campers came from Charlotte, Collier, Hendry, Lee and Glades counties.

"This plays a part of us getting into the community and hopefully help develop the level of basketball in the area," said Smesko. "I've seen tremendous improvements just over the last few years in the quality of basketball down here and I think a lot of that has to do with the high school coaches and all the people who put time in the summer leagues. The players that are here at our camp this year are much more advanced for their ages than the people we had just four years ago at our camp."

Though the week was nearly wall-to-wall basketball, McCagg and White managed to catch "The Lake House"at Bell Tower's theater.

"We both thought it was confusing," said McCagg.

A mixed review of the movie, but not the week.

"It's been a lot of fun. I'm glad we were able to come down here," said White.