ARCANUM – The Arcanum Lady Trojans held its summer girls basketball camp under the direction of head coach Abbey Moore breaking the century mark with 106 campers taking to the basketball courts.
“This is the first camp I have had this many campers and it was one of my best,” said veteran coach, Abbey Moore. “We had a lot of fun and all the credit to my coaches; Stevie Johnting and Kennedy Morris for coming and helping, all of my high school girls and what they did for me this week too – I couldn’t have done it without them.”
After a year that saw the cancellation of summer basketball camps due to COVID, Coach Moore was pleased with the return of the program at Arcanum.
“They were excited and wanted to get back into that groove,” Moore said of the three day camp. “This is always one of my favorite things about coaching – having my youth camp in the summer. I try to build it up quite a bit and hopefully now we can start to build those relationships again with the younger girls and build that excitement for our program.”
The high school Lady Trojans basketball players play a key role in the summer camp including five incomming seniors; Taylor Gray, Hailey Unger, Ellie Fout, Madelyn Fearnon and Meghan McCans.”
“It is really nice helping out and seeing all the kids smile and know that they are getting better,” said Gray. “It’s humbling watching what we’re doing impact little girls. I would always look up to the older girls when I went to camp.”
“I like watching all the little girls,” Unger stated. “They really had a lot of fun and it made it fun for me too. It makes me realize I would like to coach some day. I enjoyed helping the young girls.”
“I am happy I can make an impact on these younger girls and I hope they stick with it,” said Fout. “It’s a lot fun – we have a great program here at Arcanum.”
“One of our big aspects to camp was not only getting them better at basketball but teaching them different lessons in life,” Fearnon noted. “Two of our big words were ‘strong’ and ‘courageous’. Throughout the three days I could definitely tell these girls were thinking about it through playing basketball. I thought it was amazing to see how they were thinking about those two words and applying them to the game of basketball.”
The fifth Lady Trojans senior, Meghan McCans had a little different perspective having missed a major part of a season due to an injury requiring surgery.
“You don’t understand what you are missing out on the court until you have to sit there and watch,” McCans said. “It really does suck but you come back and you play better than ever.”
“I can remember when I was at camp at their age and now being a senior it’s my last year to be able to work with these little kids,” added McCans. “Going through an injury made me feel how much I loved playing with my group of girls. These young girls are going to be a good group of girls here in the future.”
Many of the seniors believe their may be coaching in their fulture, the result of a posative high school experience.
“I feel like they are having a good expierence in this program and for them to want to continue that role means that we must be doing something right,” said Moore. “I have had some of my former players come back and want to be a part of my staff and that means the world to me, to be able to build those relationships and continue those relationships.”
“These girls that helped out – my seniors did an outstanding job and I see a future in coaching for most of them – I am excited for them in the future,” Coach Moore concluded.
