BRADFORD – Patrick McKee had hoped more girls would attend his team’s youth basketball camp this week, but the ones who did learned a lot of good lessons from him and his current and former high school players.
About 10 girls attended Bradford’s youth girls basketball camp this week. McKee was really happy with the progress of the girls who did attend the camp.
“Low numbers,” McKee said. “I hate to see that, especially for a program I feel like we’ve got on the right track right now. We were hoping for more kids, but with the kids that were here, we learned a lot of fundamentals.”
The camp focused on fundamentals with work in passing, dribbling, shooting and defense. To teach the concepts McKee utilized basic drills and also incorporated drills that his high school team uses.
“Every coach hopes that the kid retains 100 percent of what you teach them,” McKee said. “Now the challenge is wait until their first practice come this season and seeing what they remember. We try to make it fun. We’re hoping that that kind of sticks with them by making it a little fun.”
McKee was helped throughout the week by current and former high school players. Those players also helped out at the Railroaders’ junior high basketball camp and their junior high shootout.
“They’re the ones that make this whole thing turn,” McKee said. “They’re the ones that I say, ‘Hey, we’re doing this drill,’ and they take it so that way I can talk to the girls on the side and they can kind of help the girls out one-on-one. I just think it’s really important that the current and former players are getting back in the gym and they’re teaching these kids.”
