The Last Of The Cowboys: The Story Of Snow Valley Basketball School

The Last Of The Cowboys: The Story Of Snow Valley Basketball School

Youth sports today has become a billion dollar industry nationwide, and grassroots basketball has been at the epicenter of this explosion. These days players, parents, and handlers chase the almighty scholarship, NIL deal, and branding creation. However, there is still one place where basketball coaches and players come to develop their games without the fanfare and adulation of recruiting gurus, next level evaluations, and social media highlight reels. It’s not a basketball camp, it’s a basketball school. Snow Valley Basketball School started as the brainchild of Herb Livsey, who, as a young adult, was inspired by the great Bob Cousy to start his own basketball camp. Starting in 1961 at Snow Valley Ski Resort east of Los Angeles before moving to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Livsey’s school was a place for the game’s greatest coaches to teach the game throughout the 1970s and 80s. Two Iowans, Don Showalter and Jerry Slykhuis, adopted Livsey’s curriculum, bringing the school to Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, in 1994. This summer will be a celebration of its 30th anniversary of Snow Valley in The Hawkeye State. Here, over 1400 campers will start each day before dawn and end after the sun goes down. Snow Valley Basketball School is America’s longest continuously running basketball camp. It’s where players come to learn and coaches come to teach. For those that come there every summer, It is the home to the “The Last Of The Cowboys.”