MAGOFFIN COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ) – Operation UNITE will be offering Shoot Hoops Not Drugs in-person basketball skills camps for youth in southern and eastern Kentucky on Monday June 7 and Thursday June 10.

Former University of Kentucky playmaker and four-time All-SEC Academic Team member Jarrod Polson – who was on the 2011-12 National Championship squad – will host these free three-hour camps.

All school-aged children are welcome to attend the camps, which will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Magoffin County High School and Boyd County High School.

Participants are requested to arrive 30 minutes in advance for registration. (There is no prior registration.)

For more safety and comfort during their participation, young people are asked not to wear open-toed shoes or sandals.

All participants will receive a free event t-shirt, regulation size basketball, food and water, and enter a draw for two portable basketball goals awarded at the end of the game. each side (you must be present to win).

Brought to you by the Kentucky National Guard, Shoot Hoops Not Drugs Camps are fun, interactive, and provide a safe, drug-free summer activity. Youth will interact with positive role models while learning fundamental basketball skills. Polson relates these fundamentals to situations participants will face later in life – maintaining a healthy lifestyle, listening, working as a team, putting in effort, and living with the consequences of making bad decisions.

In addition, parents and guardians will have the opportunity to participate in a brief UNITE sponsored education program on the dangers of stimulant drugs. Information on the signs, symptoms and dangers posed by prescription drugs will also be provided.

Polson, from Wilmore, Ky., Went from athlete to scholarship even before his first year in the UK began. During his four years in the UK, Polson played 94 games with a total of 140 points with a field goal percentage of 0.424 (0.313 three-point percentage).

Since 2006, UNITE has organized 86 regional basketball camps with 11,500 young participants representing 63 counties in Kentucky, 20 other states and two other countries. Over 2,500 parents / guardians attended the educational awareness sessions.

For more information on Shoot Hoops Not Drugs or other Operation UNITE initiatives, please visit their website at www.operationunite.org.