Deb Smith couldn't find any basketball camps for women of a certain age, so she started her own

Deb Smith is an avid basketball player from Maine who really wanted to go to a basketball skills camp. You know, the kind of camp where teen-agers go to play basketball 10 hours a day for three or four days and learn from experienced coaches, stay in a poorly-ventilated college dorm room, eat lousy food and make dozens of the best-friends-in-the-entire-world.

That kind of camp.

But Deb Smith is 51, and she couldn't find a basketball camp for women of her age. So did she pout? Nope. Did she get angry? Negative. File a lawsuit? Uh-uh.

Smith instead created her own basketball skills camp. It was just for women age 50 and older. The first-ever Not Too Late Basketball Camp was held from July 13 to 16 in South Portland, Maine. Fifty-three women from around the United States attended. The youngest was 50, the oldest was 70. They had real coaches, musty dorm rooms and questionable food, just like a real camp.

"It was unbelievable," Smith said. "To a person, all the coaches were just in awe just how much enthusiasm the campers had…When the coaches spoke, everyone stood around and listened with incredible interest. It was a mutual lovefest going on. The campers were in awe of the coaches, and likewise."

Smith noted that the 53 women came from 11 states, including California, Louisiana and Florida. Eighteen of the women were 60 or older.

"These 53 women never had an opportunity to attend a sports camp," Smith said. "I had many campers in their exit commentaries saying, 'I never had a chance to go to a camp. I took my kids to camps, I volunteered at camps, I worked at camps, but I never got to go myself.'"

Smith said most of the women also had never, as in never ever, had a real coach before the Not Too Late Basketball Camp. "They were more enthusiastic than any kids I've ever coached," said Amanda Rodgerson, 25. The women's basketball coach at Southern Maine Community College, Rodgerson moonlighted for the Not Too Late camp. "I didn't really know what to expect," she said, "but they were just so enthusiastic to be there. They would cheer for their teammates, cheer on other people. They were just so receptive for any tips we had to give them."

Rodgerson said she was stunned by the high level of physical conditioning of the players. "I definitely learned about staying active! There were women there who were 70 years old who didn't even look 50."

Smith concurred: "My athletic trainer, who is maybe 33 years old, could not believe the resiliency of these women. We started at 6 p.m. on a Thursday night and ended at noon on Sunday. Friday and Saturday were days that were 12 hours long. On Sunday morning, we were supposed to start at 9 a.m., and at 8:30 we had three-quarters of the women in the gym."

Smith had a decided advantage in creating a skills camp. She's the operations manager for the South Portland (Maine) Community Center and has for years organized "day camps, soccer camps, field hockey camps, science camps, drama camps, you name it."

The list is long, but all of these camps were for children. Until the Not Too Late camp. Will Smith do it again next summer? Definitely, she says. "It has such potential," she raved. "The market is huge. Next year, we'll max out at 70 people, and I'll have a wait list."