TRENTON- Frantz Massenat has been blessed in his basketball career. Now, he wants to share his talents with the younger players from the area. Massenat, who recently signed a three-year deal with EWE Baskets-Oldenburg, the runner-up in last season's German Beko BBL League, returns home to Mercer County to host the This Is My Dream Skills Clinic. The mini-camp, which...
TRENTON- Frantz Massenat has been blessed in his basketball career.
Now, he wants to share his talents with the younger players from the area.
Massenat, who recently signed a three-year deal with EWE Baskets-Oldenburg, the runner-up in last season's German Beko BBL League, returns home to Mercer County to host the This Is My Dream Skills Clinic. The mini-camp, which will be spread out over two three-day periods, runs Tuesday-Thursday June 21-23, and will be hosted at Trenton Catholic Academy.
The second three-day period will be July 5-7.
As a professional, who led TCA to a Tournament of Champions victory in 2010 before heading off to Drexel University, Massenat wants to impart some of the knowledge he has learned in his two-year stint with Mitteldeutscher BC.
"This is my first time having it," Massenat said. "Kids always ask me, 'Can I work out with you?' So I thought about what I would do to have them all work out. I decided on a three-day clinic, and I can have the guy who trains me, James Clark, come in an work those kids out. He works with NBA guys as well."
"I am going to have them do the type of drills I do, just so they can see how I go about my work," Massenat. "With me in Germany, it is tough for people to see me play. But if they can see me work out, they can see what it takes. That is my vision, to show them what it takes to make it to the next level."
Massenat goes from a MBC team, that finished 17th in an 18-team league, to an EWE Baskets team that will compete in the 2016-2017 EuroCup competition. Much like UEFA European football, the EuroLeague and EuroCup reward top finishes in domestic leagues with a chance to be crowned as the top teams in European basketball. EWE Baskets made it to the round-of-16, or 1/8 finals, where they lost to finalists Strasbourg in the best-of-three series.
It is a big step up for the 24-year old Massenat, and one that was rewarded with a three-year deal.
"I was at the bottom of the league, then to go to the second place team was amazing," Massenat said. "And it is for three years. At the beginning of the year, I always liked their team when we played them. I liked how they went about things, and I hoped that one day I could play for them."
"Usually, you do a two-year, or a one-plus-one year deal," Massenat said. "But for me to get three years, that is a legit deal. And I am one of the youngest guys on the team. Plus, they are in Eurocup, which is huge."
"We play 34 games in our league, and now, with the EuroCup, we can play up to 65 games," Massenat said. "That is perfect. Now we play twice a week and get to play all over Europe."
The skills camp will showcase different parts of the game, but will focus on the guard play that Massenat has excelled at for so many years.
"With me being a guard, the first day is going to be catch-and-shoot, and working on footwork," Massenat said. "That is big as you get older. The second day I am going to work on moves off the dribble. And the third day, I will have a pro day type of atmosphere. I am going to put them through the type of drills they would see at a combine."
"I have James to help me, and normally, it is just us two in the gym," Massenat said of his trainer. "Hopefully the kids can learn from what we are trying to do."
Contact Sean Miller at seanmillertrentontimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheProdigalSean