The Wollongong Hawks believe the burgeoning Shellharbour community could become a hoops hotbed in coming years.About 100 enthusiastic children took part in yesterday's Hawks/McDonald's school holiday basketball clinic at Shellharbour Basketball Stadium.The turnout prompted Hawks community development officer Matt Flinn to suggest the southern community could unearth the club's next home-grown star.The Hawks are committed to spreading their wings when it comes to building their fan base and Flinn claimed Shellharbour boasted untapped potential."It's a real boom area in terms of growth and it's really important the Hawks establish and nurture a strong presence in the Shellharbour region," he said during a brief time-out from the clinic."There are some targets we need to achieve in relation to reaching the schools and community and I plan on exceeding those targets."We need to visit two or three schools per week and develop strong ongoing relationships."I'm not just talking about when it's the basketball season, because we need to keep it ticking over in the off-season and make sure there's no cooling off period."Shellharbour has limitless potential, but we'll also be concentrating on the Illawarra as a whole to try and get it back to like it was in the early 90s, when virtually every kid in Wollongong could name every single Hawks player," Flinn said."There's also going to be a strong focus on areas like Moss Vale and Bomaderry, and given that we're the only NBL club in NSW, we even want to stretch into the Sydney area."Yesterday's five-hour clinic was a massive hit with the kids.The young hoopsters practised a range of skills under the watchful eye of Flinn and his expert instructors Troy Pilon, Dom Cooks, Brad Hughes, Lara Vangelovich and Riannon Fotheringham, while Hawks stars Glen Saville and Mat Campbell were on hand for the afternoon session."There's kids as young as five and as old as 14 and I'm very impressed with some of the talent and skills on display," Flinn said."Who knows, we could be looking at the next Gordie McLeod or Mat Campbell or Dan Jackson. That's why we need to focus on and develop our youngsters, because they could be our next wave of Hawks stars."