By Wade Linville
The Ripley Bee
Niya Royal graduated from Ripley-Union-Lewis-Huntington High School five years ago, a basketball star who went on to enjoy a success career as a student/athlete at Lane College where she competed in women’s basketball at the collegiate level.
Motivated to give back to her hometown community, Royal started her “Preparing Our Youth for the Future Basketball Camp” five years ago. On Monday evening, more than 20 young campers ventured to the RULH High School gymnasium for the first day of Royal’s fifth annual basketball camp, all with the common goal of improving on their basketball skills.
Assisting Niya Royal with this year’s camp were some other RULH High School grads who found success on the court during their time as high school student/athletes including: Kassey Arnett, Kursten Prater, and Kristen Abbott.
Also serving as an assistant instructor for this year’s camp was Niya Royal’s younger brother, Jaki Royal, a Southern Hills Athletic Conference basketball all-star who enters his senior year at RULH High School.
The camp was scheduled to run throughout the week, ending on Friday, June 29.
