Sam Boynton the basketball coach knows exactly what Sam Boynton the basketball player needs to do to improve his game.

"Coach Boynton would work with player Boynton's jump shot, because it was ugly," Boynton said.

It's not too early to call Boynton, an Erskine Academy graduate who is entering his senior year at the University of Maine at Farmington, one of the up and coming basketball coaches in the state. Not when he's already spent time picking the brains of some of the top high school and college coaches in Maine.

Now Boynton is picking the brains of some of the top coaches in the country.

This is Boynton's summer of love. His passion for basketball led Boynton to fill a cooler with sandwiches, drinks and snacks and drive to Gainesville, Fla., to work at the University of Florida's basketball camp. Right now, Boynton is working a camp at Duke University.

Before the end of the summer, he'll be on the staff of the camp at Syracuse University.

Even the most basketball illiterate would learn a thing or two about hoops working for Billy Donovan, Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim. Boynton has a pretty good understanding of the game.

When he was a freshman at Erskine, Boynton was making up scouting reports on the Eagles' opponents. After playing for Tim Bonsant, now the head coach at Cony, Boynton played one year at UMF for Dick Meader. Two years ago, Boynton's studies (he's a Secondary Education major with a minor in Social Sciences) had him working at Mt. Blue High School.

There, he met boys basketball coach Jim Bessey, who was in need of a coach for the freshman boys team.

"(Bessey) asked me if I'd thought about coaching," Boynton said. "I thought it was just a generic question."

Turns out it was a job interview. Boynton went out and bought himself a library of coaching books and DVDs, none of which were as good as old-fashioned experience.

"Coach Meader told me you have to have your first year sometime," Boynton said. "What I love about basketball, is there's a lot of aspects to it. Coach Bessey, he's been doing it for 35 years, and he still learns something new every day."

Bessey hooked Boynton up with Mt. Blue alum Ed Kohtala, a longtime college basketball coach who once coached at Florida. Kohtala talked to Darren Hertz, Florida's Director of Basketball Operations, who offered Boynton a spot on the summer camp staff.

"I think I got extremely lucky," Boynton said. "I was at the right place at the right time, I guess."

When he met Donovan, Boynton was wearing a Farmington T-shirt. A Providence College graduate, Donovan thought it was for Farmington, Mass., but the New England connection was made. This week at Duke, Boynton has been a little surprised at how hands on Krzyzewski is. It's obvious Boynton is learning as much off the court as on.

"Coaching is about the relationships you make. Not just with players, with parents, administrators, everybody," Boynton said.

Sooner rather than later, Boynton will be ready to take over his own varsity program. He'll be wise to approach the opportunity the way he approached the game as a player. "I played hard all the time," Boynton said. "Nobody was going to outwork me. You might work as hard as me, but you won't outwork me."

Travis Lazarczyk -- 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com