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Danville's Yates pleased with turnout for first camp

June 20, 2007|HAL MORRIS

Matthew Yates was a little worried last week when he had just 10 kids signed up for his first Admiral Basketball Camp.

But the new Danville boys head coach was "ecstatic" after having 40 show up for the camp, which ended today.

"I got a list of kids from last year from coach (former coach Craig) Pippen and made a lot of phone calls Thursday and Friday night. Monday, 30 more showed up," Yates said Tuesday. "I'm absolutely ecstatic about our first camp. The enthusiasm of our players as coaches, and the enthusiasm of the kids at the camp was great.

"Every single kid worked hard and I'm really just proud of the fact we had people turn out. I was really nervous about that because the numbers were looking really low before we got started."

And rather than just teach kids fundamentals most of the camp, then let them play a little bit of 5-on-5, Yates wanted his kids to have fun while learning the fundamentals.

"We'll work on the fundamentals the first hour, then the last two hours, we play games," Yates said. "As they're playing those games, we try to coach them on the fundamentals. But more than anything, the kids love to play games."

And judging by the enthusiastic response he was getting, that approach was working as far as the campers were concerned.

Isaiah Henry, 12, liked the setup because he got better at his game and got in better shape.

"It's kind of good. It makes your legs stronger and helps your shot get better," said Henry, of Moreland. "And we work on our free throws and they teach you how to shoot a left-handed layup.

Competing for fun

"And we play competition for the fun of it. I like the competition games and playing the other teams."

Yates was hoping the camp would teach the kids about conditioning as well as how to play the game.

"We've done some exercises that normally you'd be doing at the high school level or the college level," he said. "So I try to introduce some of them to that stuff, and I'm sure they're legs are tired because of that."

Danville junior Kruz Warner served as a counselor, and as a coach during 5-on-5 games. He thought the campers seemed very happy to be playing more games rather than going through drills.

"We've done more stuff to get them in better shape, and then we just try to do more stuff to get them involved," Warner said. "They seem to have more energy towards the games. But they're still catching the fundamentals."

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