Outlaws summer basketball camp draws crowd

The Outlaws Summer Hoops Camp brought 78 campers to the annual event - the largest turnout in the last several years. Incoming fourth through eighth graders attended the three-day camp which was held Tuesday through Thursday, June 20-22 at Sisters High School.

Both the gyms were bursting with enthusiastic kids ready and excited to improve their basketball skills.

Many of the kids were new to the sport and hadn't touched a basketball except for maybe at recess or at PE. They were taught the fundamentals while other more experienced kids were challenged to improve their skills, and add new skills to their toolbox.

Varsity Boys Vasketball Coach Chad Rush said, "We increased the difficulty and intensity of the skills to those that had the basics. One good example was a lay-up. If they could make an easy lay-up we worked with them on a cross-over or a reverse lay-up."

Several kids shared their thoughts on the camp.

Noe Durham, a fifth- grader, said, "We all got to play together as a team sport. I liked the Mikan Drill (named after George Mikan, the first true big man in the NBS) the best because it's a competition and you see how many shots you can get in 30 seconds."

Fourth-grader Sawyer Sweeney said, "I liked playing with my friends, and I liked when we got to shoot and scrimmage."

Jace Davis, seventh grader, told The Nugget it was his first time attending the camp.

"It was pretty fun and it helped me get a lot better," Davis said. "The coaches were super helpful, and I liked all the drills."

Incoming freshman Shanitah Few has attended the camp every summer since she was 6 years old, and this year was a high school volunteer.

Few said, "It's always welcoming and like a family. I enjoy playing basketball and at this camp you always learn something new and get better at shooting."

At the close of the first day, Rush said with a grin, "It was smooth chaos. I thought the day went really well considering the amount of kids we had, and I want to give a shout-out to the high school kids who helped."

Varsity girls coach Paul Patton said, "The kids all worked hard and it looked like they were having fun. They really wanted to scrimmage and we were able to do 10 three-on-three scrimmages today."

"The first day was really cool because all the kids were really nice and encouraging to each other," a high school volunteer said. "That helps make the program stronger because the kids are having fun and want to come back. It's fun to see them develop their skills and become closer with each other."

Volunteer Diego Silva said, "I like that we get to show what we know to the younger kids and help them improve on their personal skills. It's a good opportunity for the younger kids to come out and learn from the older kids that they look up to."

Last year the camp brought in 57 campers (26 girls and 31 boys) and this year varsity coaches were pleased with the jump in numbers to 78 (26 girls and 48 boys).

Rush said, "I was excited to see the great numbers we had and the excitement for the game of basketball. The campers worked hard, tried new things that that we were teaching them, and looked like they were having fun. We throw a bunch at them and hope they take one or two things away with them. If they can do that we've done our job. Overall, I was very pleased with how well the camp went this year."