GREENVILLE – The Greenville boys basketball team had 90 kids ranging from kindergarten students to high school freshmen attend its summer camp this past week.
The four-day camp was split into three sessions with third through fifth graders participating for four hours each morning, kindergarteners through second graders participating for an hour each day and sixth through ninth graders participating for four hours each afternoon.
Greenville varsity boys basketball coach Kyle Joseph said he saw a lot of progress throughout the week from the kids and that they quickly picked up things they were taught.
“Especially with these younger kids where maybe they’re starting from a position of less experience and you can really see them get better,” Joseph said.
With 10 grade levels participating in the camp there was a wide range of skill levels. But for all of the kids Joseph wanted to emphasis the same ideas.
“The one thing we’re focusing on in all three groups is trying to really emphasis that we need to be great at the things that don’t take ability,” he said. “Obviously here at camp we’re going to work on the skills, but we want to make sure that we’re great at listening, being a good teammate, giving 100 percent effort all the time. Then skill-wise we want to spend a lot of time just on ball skills, dribbling, passing, catching, that kind of thing.”
Each day began with stationary ball handling then progressed to drills that included dribbling on the move and finishing moves. They also mixed in games such as dribble knockout to apply their skills and keep the camp fun.
“We want to make sure that they have fun so they keep coming back,” Joseph said. “I try to get them to work on their game, take what they’ve learned here and keep working on it. I just think for me the game of basketball is so much fun to work on even by yourself. It shouldn’t be too hard for me to make it fun for them, but we certainly want to make sure they enjoy it.”
Joseph led the camp with his assistant coaches, current Greenville boys basketball player Noah Walker, former Greenville boys basketball player Aaron Rich and some former players from the University of Akron.
