Basketball camp another huge success
Every year, the Tippecanoe boys basketball camps are the earliest out of the gate in the summer, as they held their three-day youth camps at the high school last week. Over 100 young basketball prospects took part in the morning session of kids in grades 3-5, while the middle school athletes in grades 6-8 were there in the afternoon, also enjoying camp.
Coming off a district championship season, the Red Devils staff was hoping for another huge turnout, and winning seems to bring in even more kids than usual.
“We have always had great numbers since I have been here, and it is great to have that buy-in from the younger kids and their families,” Tipp coach Brock Moon said. “We give them a lot of opportunities with fall and spring skills camp, so we want to give them any opportunity to get them in the gym and excited about basketball.”
“Getting them the love of the game is the biggest thing,” he added. “Make them fall in love with the game, and you never know what that kid is going to turn into if you get a basketball in their hands.”
Getting them introduced to the game is huge at that age, not only getting the kids to love the sport, but take home what they learn and become a better player.
“I thought it was a successful camp,” Moon said. “I tell the kids they are not going to get fantastic at basketball in three days. But our hope is not only to fall in love with it, but they take the ball home and work on some of the ball handling drills and the shooting drills we do.”
The first two days, they did a lot of station work with the kids (ball handling, shooting, defensive skill work) and a shooting competition. Then, on the final day, it was all competition events with the kids.
While the morning kids were being taught the fundamentals, in the afternoon with the middle school athletes it was more about teaching the system.
“It was more of an introduction of who we are and what we are about,” Moon said. “We still did a fair amount of competing.”
For the rest of the summer, Tipp will compete in shootouts and practices and host Dunbar in a scrimmage at the end of the month. Moon hopes to use this time to prepare for the upcoming season with some new faces.
“My first year I had a great senior class, then you thought how are we going to rebuild from this and compete, and we did it,” he said. “The next year was the same story. From last year, we lost a player like CJ (Bailey), and it makes a difference. But what a year Hudson Ganger had, who will be back.”
“It is not just CJ; that senior class was special for me. It was the first class I had all four years. This group this summer has a lot of new opportunities, and that is what summer is about. I don’t care about winning and losing in the summer; it is about getting better.”
Tipp hosts Dunbar and Celina on June 26 at 7 p.m. in a scrimmage. Before that, Tipp will be in a pair of shootouts at Fairfield and Hamilton, along with Wapakoneta. They will play in the Kentucky live weekend. Tipp will also play at Troy Christian June 18 in a scrimmage at 6 p.m.
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