Creighton Basketball Hosts Seventh Annual Abilities Camp

The Creighton men’s and women’s basketball programs held their seventh annual Creighton Abilities basketball camp on Friday.

The Bluejays hosted approximately 100 children with special needs between the ages of 6 and 13 at the team practice facilities and D.J. Sokol Arena. Creighton’s student-athletes, managers and members of the coaching staffs collaborated with Creighton Physical Therapy students to give the children an opportunity to participate in activities related to basketball and agility skills.

The Bluejay basketball players and other camp counselors helped the children participate in a variety of activities including relay races, shooting baskets, dribbling and more. The players wrapped up the camp with a dribbling display and throwing down some dunks on the lowered hoops to entertain the campers. They also signed autographs and gave each child a jersey of their own to wear during the event and to take home.

Senior transfer guard Josh Dix said that the event was a lot of fun.

“I haven’t done anything like this, but it was great,” Dix told reporters.

This event was even more personal for Dix, the former Iowa Hawkeye who transferred to Creighton for his senior season. His younger brother, Grayson, was one of the campers. He said that it was awesome getting to experience it with his brother.

“It was cool,” Dix said. “He shot some baskets, dribbled around a little bit. He was having fun.”

Another player that had a close connection to the camp was sophomore guard Ty Davis. His cousin with Down Syndrome, Miles Braden, also participated in the camp. Davis said that Miles enjoys the camp and that he loves getting the chance to work with the kids.

“Being able to grow up around a Down Syndrome cousin, it’s cool to see,” Davis told reporters. “This makes their year, it makes their month. He talks about this all the time. It’s honestly a blessing just to see him having so much fun out here with all the other campers.”

One aspect that Davis said stood out to him was getting to see how much joy and excitement it brought the children.

“Honestly, just all the smiles that I saw throughout the day (was the highlight),” Davis said. “I know my cousin was having a blast meeting all my new teammates.”

Bringing awareness and allowing kids to participate in these activities is something that the Bluejays love having the opportunity to do. Davis said that it’s very special and meaningful.

“Not every school does an abilities camp like this,” Davis said. “So it’s very cool for them to kind of get to experience this.”

The Physical Therapy students are another crucial part that help make this camp successful. Their main job is to help the campers and make sure that the children are able to participate in a safe manner.

Physical Therapy student Jacob Gillen said that he enjoys getting to work with the kids.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Gillen said. “Having this day, not being in class and being able to participate with the team, and then also having kids coming in, it’s a good time.”

With this being Gillen’s second year helping with the camp, he has found it to be very impactful. After working one-on-one with a camper last year, Gillen spent this year’s camp in an overseer role. He said that it’s neat getting to watch the kids grow and develop and referenced one camper in particular.

“There was a kid that was scared to even come in and experience the whole time,” Gillen said. “Kind of being able to sit down with him, and saying, ‘We’re going to have fun, we’re going to be able to do what you want to do on your own speed,’ and kind of seeing him change from being scared and sad and him having fun, and then watching him run around and play basketball was really cool.”

Creighton men's and women's basketball held their 7th annual abilities camp for over 100 kids today on campus.

Ty Davis and Josh Dix both had family members participating 💙 pic.twitter.com/ntzrvUWsyY

— Hurrdat Sports (@HurrdatSports) June 6, 2025