Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
Beginning on Sunday, March 29, NyaStrong Warriors Academy (NWA) will welcome all south Thurston County and north Lewis County first grade and second grade boys to participate in a free athletic agility camp at Tenino Middle School.
The event will run from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and continue each Sunday through the end of April.
The NWA program aims to honor the life of former Yelm student, Nya Jaquez, who died in October 2016 after she battled signet ring cell carcinoma, an aggressive and rare form of colon cancer, for several years.
She attended Southworth Elementary School, Yelm Middle School and Yelm High School before dying on Oct. 16, 2016.
Nearly a decade after her death, Jaquez’s name lives on through the NWA program, where NWA program head coach Richard Durham aims to teach student-athletes within the Nisqually Valley about the courage and perseverance Jaquez displayed in her fight with cancer.
According to Durham, the first several renditions of the camps will be centered around athletic agility. As participants enter the third or fourth camp, they’ll begin to shift more into basketball-centered drills.
Durham added, if the camps go well, the program will be looking at putting together a boys 3-on-3 basketball tournament team. The coach said after the camps conclude, the program will host tryouts for the tournament team.
He specified several reasons as to why the program will focus on athletic agility camps before shifting into basketball-oriented drills.
Durham said that it gives an opportunity to build confidence before tryouts begin, gives everyone involved to see how the program operates and because it will coordinate with spring sports schedules.
“The more confidence they have the better they will do and the more fun they will have. I’ve never had to tell a kid having fun to work harder,” Durham said. “If you have a competitive first or second grade boy you’re encouraged to attend. We’re about safety and having fun.”
You can contact Durham by messaging the organization’s self-titled Facebook page, or by emailing him at nyastrongwarriorsacademy@gmail.com.
Additionally, because of Jaquez’s roots in Yelm, Durham and the program are actively seeking more Yelm-area athletes to come out and join the program.
“We want to make an effort getting Yelm kids involved,” Durham said. “There are six elementary schools in Yelm that are full of current first and second grade boys with no community competitive basketball in this age group.”
