GOOD HOPE, Ala. – Summer is camp season and the Good Hope Raiders got things underway with the sixth annual Raider Skills Camp Tuesday morning. The varsity boys head coach, Drew Adams, the varsity girls head coach, Justin Aby, the JV boys head coach, Griffin Morris, along with several varsity players and assistant coach Scott Adams were on-hand to work with this year’s participants. It will be a two-day camp hosted from 8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Kids that are going into the third grade through the eighth grade took part in day one and there was a great turnout as over 60 kids showed up at the camp.
Coach Drew Adams was thrilled to get back on the court to work with a record number of campers.
“We were really excited about our turnout,” Adams said. “I think the biggest camps that we’ve had in the past have been around 40 to 50 campers. We were in the 60’s today, so by far, the biggest camp that we’ve had. I’m just really excited about the kids that showed up and decided to come to camp. Obviously, you want numbers, but we just love the fact that there’s this many kids around Good Hope that want to come to basketball camp. Generally, we’ve had camps that were a little lower numbers-wise, but they were great camps. For us to see 60+ kids that want to show up in the summer and play basketball, we’re really excited to see that.”
Day one was more of a fundamental day at the camp and Wednesday will be a really big day for the young players.
“Tuesday’s our fundamental day where we just teach them basic ball-handling, shooting, passing, stuff like that,” Adams said. “When we get to Wednesday, we’ll do more competition stuff. We’ll let them do more three-on-three, play Gotcha! and play Dribble Tag. Those are their favorite games. That will lead up into competition day.”
The drills that the kids are learning right now will definitely help them out in the long run.
“We’re giving them the basic stuff. It doesn’t matter if you’re a 3rd grader or if you’re one of our varsity guys, you got to be able to do the simple things,” Adams said. “You’ve got to be able to shoot the basketball, handle the basketball and pass it. And the more they can learn to do things at a younger age, the easier it’ll get when they’re older.”
Learning what to do and what not to do is really important, but for Adams, the key for the players at the camp is having fun as well.
“First and foremost, we want them to have fun. We want them to leave each day thinking that they’ve had a really good time,” Adams said. “I think they’re beneficial. A lot of these kids play youth league, so we just hope that it helps them become a slightly better player by the time they get to November.”
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