CHMS concludes successful summer basketball camp
Published 1:26 am Thursday, June 7, 2012
Basketball season is still in full swing, and not the NBA playoffs.
Charles Henderson Middle School completed its basketball camp this past Wednesday.
CHMS head coach Shelby Tuck, who was more than elated with this year’s turnout, hosted the camp.
“This is my first year here at the middle school, so we’re just trying to start something and get something started here with the kids here and start basketball at an early age and I think it was a great success.” Tuck said.
“We had 30 kids come out, where we had 40 sign up.”
The camp was hosted for kids between the ages of 9-14 and lasted from 8:00 am until noon for three days.
The kids would come in first thing in the morning and have a “wrap session” where they would talk basketball with coach Tuck, followed by a stretching and warm-up session where the kids would stretch out and loosen up for the day ahead of them.
Tuck and his staff of coaches would then go over some of the fundamentals of the game.
“[We would go over] passing, dribbling, shooting, defense and basic defensive slide, just to get them familiar with the proper technique of playing defense,” Tuck said.
Afterward players split up into eight different teams and league play would ensue. The kids would play for about an hour and a half, where Tuck would wrap them up and get them ready to dismiss.
On the brochure, there is a list of “camp goals” and the first one is sportsmanship. Coach Tuck hopes that above everything else, that is the one thing his players get out of his camp.
“Playing as a team too,” Tuck said. “Basketball is not an individual sport, so we’re definitely learning the team concept and playing together and good sportsmanship. “
Tuck also created a game-like scenario for his campers, with certified referees attending his camp to call all of the league games.
“They’re learning that, when the referee makes a call, we don’t respond to it, we just go back and play.” Tuck said.
The camp may be over, but Tuck is hoping that next year he can duplicate the same success as this year.
“I think it was a great success and I think in years to come it’ll be even better.”