Keagon Smith, left, pulls down a rebound during a five-on-five drill at the Farmersville Youth Boys Basketball Camp. Photo by David Wolman / C&S Media
By David Wolman
In just his first season at the helm, head coach Kingsley Akinwole led a huge turnaround for the Farmersville boys basketball team.
The Fightin’ Farmers improved from 15 wins in 2024-25 to 23 in 2025-26, giving Farmersville its first winning season since it finished 28-5 in 2012-13.
Winning has helped draw increased interest from the community, especially from its youth. Farmersville had 60 boys’ basketball players entering grades four through nine participate in a three-day camp that was held June 16-18 at Farmersville High School.
Akinwole is hopeful that the amount of turnout will continue to increase each year.
“Last year, in my first year, we had 40 campers show up,” Akinwole said. “Hopefully, it continues to grow. We’re hoping to be like volleyball. They had 90 kids show up to their camp.”
Akinwole cited word of mouth as a big reason behind the increased turnout last week. Some of the coaches who helped with the camp have children who currently compete and they told their friends about the camp. Also, players from the Farmersville-based AAU team FMBL Elite told their friends about last week’s camp.
FMBL Elite is comprised of fifth- and sixth-grade players.
“They’re playing in a lot of highly competitive tournaments,” Akinwole said. “They’re not winning a lot of games, but they’re competing in them and competing well. By the time they get to high school, they’ll be at an elite level.
“A big reason why volleyball is so successful here and making the playoffs is because they have club teams in Farmersville. It was something that I wanted to start in basketball when I got hired at Farmersville.”
Participants in the basketball camp started the first and second days of camp with one hour of dribbling movements, including working off their dominant and non-dominant hands. They finished each day working on different types of fundamentals, including layups.
On the camp’s third day, the campers competed in three-on-three and five-on-five games.
MVP awards were handed out to each age division at the end of each day. Those winners posed for pictures with the Farmer Joe chain that were presented to them. Many campers utilized the opportunity to work on their celebratory poses.
“There was a lot of competition,” Akinwole said. “The kids competed really well. Things got a little heated at times, but that’s what we wanted to see. We want to have kids that want to win.”
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