Our Story

Our Story

In 1993, a high school basketball coach and teacher at Norwood High School had a simple idea: create a basketball camp that would give young athletes a place to learn, compete, and fall in love with the game.

That coach was David Powell Sr.

What began with just 15 campers in its inaugural summer quickly grew into something far greater than anyone could have imagined. By the final summer of Shooting for Excellence Basketball Camp in 2006, more than 420 children attended in a single week, making it one of the largest and most respected youth basketball camps in Massachusetts.

But the numbers only tell part of the story.

If you were fortunate enough to attend Shooting for Excellence, you remember it as more than a camp. It was a community. It was a place where children from kindergarten through ninth grade—regardless of experience or ability—felt welcomed, challenged, and inspired.

Campers laughed, competed, learned the fundamentals of basketball, developed confidence, built friendships, and discovered what hard work could accomplish. Every drill, every game, and every lesson reflected the values that David Powell Sr. and his lifelong friend and assistant coach, Joseph Camozzi, believed in: relentless effort, teamwork, sportsmanship, discipline, and the pursuit of excellence.

Those same values helped lay the foundation for the success of Norwood High School Basketball during its rise to prominence in the early 2000s.

I know because I was there.

I was a third grader when the very first Shooting for Excellence camp opened its doors in 1993. For the next seven summers, I attended as a camper before spending another seven years coaching alongside my father and Joe.

Those experiences shaped who I became.

Basketball taught me how to lead, how to compete, and how to serve others through coaching and education.

After graduating from Norwood High School, I continued my playing career at Wheaton College before beginning a journey in basketball officiating. Starting with CYO games, I steadily worked my way through every level of the game—from sub-varsity to varsity, junior college, NCAA Division III, NCAA Division II, and ultimately NCAA Division I. Today, I am proud to officiate Division I men's basketball in conferences including the Patriot League, Ivy League, Northeast Conference, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), America East, and the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA).

Coaching has remained just as meaningful to me.

Since 2010, I have served as the Head Coach of Needham High School Boys Volleyball, where our program has earned four Massachusetts State Championships and eleven Final Four appearances while building a culture centered on character, accountability, and relentless improvement.

In 2015, I founded PHD Volleyball with a vision that looked remarkably familiar. We started with a handful of camps, clinics, and small-group training sessions built around one belief: exceptional coaching and a relentless commitment to player development can change lives. Over the past decade, PHD Volleyball has grown into one of the premier volleyball training organizations in New England, training thousands of athletes every year through camps, clinics, leagues, and elite small-group instruction. Along the way, we've helped transform the landscape of volleyball training by raising the standard for coaching, organization, and player development.

Looking back, it's clear that PHD Volleyball wasn't a new idea—it was simply the next chapter of what I learned years earlier at Shooting for Excellence. The sport changed, but the mission never did: create an environment where young athletes are challenged, supported, inspired, and taught lessons that extend far beyond the game itself.

Through all of life's changes, one thing has never changed: my relationship with my father and our longtime family friend, Joe Camozzi.

Today, the three of us live just minutes apart in Needham.

Over countless conversations, we found ourselves reminiscing about the camp that meant so much to so many families. We talked about the friendships that were formed, the lessons that were learned, and the impact those summers had on generations of young athletes.

Eventually, those conversations turned into one simple question:

What if we brought it back?

Twenty years after the final Shooting for Excellence Basketball Camp, the answer became obvious.

The need is still there.

Kids still deserve a place where they can develop their skills, compete at a high level, build confidence, make friends, and learn lessons that extend far beyond basketball.

So we're bringing it back.

Not simply to recreate what once was—but to build upon it.

We're combining more than three decades of coaching, teaching, and Division I basketball experience with the same values that made Shooting for Excellence so special from the very beginning.

The faces may be a little older.

The drills may be more modern.

But the mission remains exactly the same.

To create an environment where every child is challenged, encouraged, and inspired to become the very best version of themselves—both on and off the court.

The same people.

The same passion.

A new generation.

Welcome to Shooting for Excellence Basketball Camp.