Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett takes a foul shot during yesterday’s workout at Celtics training camp at Salve Regina University.

NEWPORT — As Andrew Spino and Judd Coderre stood in the parking lot outside Salve Regina University’s gymnasium yesterday morning, a four-door pickup truck pulled into the parking lot. The two seniors couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw who got out.

Not one Boston Celtic, not two, not even just the Big Three.

“There were six of them. Garnett, Pierce, Allen, Cassell, Big Baby and Darius Miles. The Big Three were right in front of us. It was pretty cool,” said Spino, while pointing at the truck and wearing a Celtics T-shirt he put on in anticipation of catching a glimpse of the players. “It’s pretty impressive to have the world champions on our campus.”

For Salve basketball lovers, particularly fans of the Boston Celtics, it’s a heavenly week at the seaside Catholic school. For the first time in the university’s history, the Celtics chose Salve as the location for a preseason training camp. The visit to the seaside campus began Monday and continues for a week with practices twice a day, which are closed to the public, and a Saturday night scrimmage for ticket-holding members of the Salve community.

The camp provides an opportunity for the 2008 NBA champs to get in some hard training and to spend lots of time together in town and at their hotel, the Newport Marriott — half a world away from last year’s camp in Rome, Italy.

“We wanted to stay in market, somewhere where we had Celtics fans, and spend our money in a Celtics market,” said general manager Danny Ainge, who watched yesterday’s scrimmage in a warm-up suit while slowly pedaling a stationary bike. “I came down here and looked at the facility and thought it was wonderful, a wonderful spot for a training camp — good hotels, good town, and walking distance to a lot of things from the hotel.

“We like to get away and have the players spend some time with one another at night and go out to dinner and develop some chemistry and unity without the distractions of going back and taking care of kids at home and family. That’s the theory behind it.”

The campus sits between some of the most famous attractions in the state, including Cliff Walk, the path along Newport’s rocky shoreline, and the Gilded Age estates of Bellevue Avenue. On Monday, when coach Doc Rivers and the players were asked if they would visit any of the mansions, Rivers joked that they might be smaller than some of his star players’ houses.

Yesterday morning, inside the shingle-style Rodgers Recreation Center, no one was allowed to watch the first two hours of the practice. News crews were brought to the second floor of the gymnasium, where a window overlooking the court was covered with newspapers and tape.

“Part of our agreement with the team is we would limit people asking for photographs and trying to touch players,” said university spokesman Matthias Boxler. “They are here to focus on basketball.”

Shortly after noon, the newspapers came down and the cameras began rolling. Down on the court, the Celtics were scrimmaging, with starters Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo on one team, along with new center Patrick O’Bryant, substituting for the injured Kendrick Perkins.

In some respects, it felt like a mid-season game. Rivers stood on the sideline scrutinizing the action and occasionally calling out to the players. A scoreboard kept track of the points. Referees called fouls and sent players to the free throw line. And Pierce challenged some of the calls, even arguing with Brian Scalabrine at one point about whether his hand had been slapped.

“A great practice,” Kevin Garnett said in an interview after the scrimmage was over and he had finished having a turn getting fed ball after ball to practice outside jump shots. “Very high intensity always,” he said, “a lot of hard work, diving on the floor, Doc talking trash to us.”

Rivers, he said, had to calm things down a bit.

“This is what makes us better,” Garnett said. “The fire is definitely in the belly.”

The players put ice packs on their knees after finishing and then headed outside to the team bus. Fans were waiting for them at the edge of a cordoned-off pathway.

“Ray Allen! Ray Allen!” they called out when the star shooting guard emerged.

Nineteen-year-old Salve student Alison Ackley, who reluctantly admitted to skipping a literature class, waved to the players and snapped their photographs.

“I was hoping to get some pictures and a handshake. I got Paul Pierce’s,” Ackley said. She hoped to return again, but added, “I probably won’t skip class again.”

Ackley was thrilled to have won a ticket in a fundraising lottery for the Celtics annual “green on white” dress scrimmage on Saturday.

“I’m a huge Celtics fan my whole life. I’m not used to them being good,” she said. “This is exciting for me.”

rsalit@projo.com