Sports
North Kingstown Sports Camps: Specialized Basketball
This basketball camp focuses more on improving individual skills than competitions and contests.
North Kingstown High School teams up with the town all summer long to put on sports camps. This week's featured camp was a specialized basketball camp.
The camp is for the kids trying to compete in middle school and high school. It focuses more on improving the skills of each player than last week's basketball camp, which placed more of an emphasis on contests and competitions.
Aaron Thomas, the camp coordinator and boy's basketball coach, spoke about some of the goals of the camp. "We are looking for ways to improve their skills," he said, "We test agility, speed and the vertical jump."
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The kids have a good opportunity to play against tough competition, which will only serve them well in the future. "The added benefit is that some of these kids will play on the high school team together," Thomas said.
Bobby Hanley, 14, has been playing basketball since he was six years old. "This is my first year of camp and it is helping me adjust to the competition I will face at the high school level," he said. Hanley will be a freshman in September.
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"I like playing against the high school kids," Hanley said, "It'll help me improve my game."
Each day there are different sets of offensive and defensive drills that the kids participate in. Freshman NKHS basketball coach Tim Quainoo and four current or former players assist Thomas at the camp. "The biggest message is, take what you learn and apply it," Thomas said.
Alec Bedard has been a regular at the camp the past few years, celebrating his fourth year at the camp this summer. "I like that it is beneficial to your skills and it helps me improve," he said.
Bedard has been playing since he was nine years old and, similar to Hanley, is 14 and will be a freshman in September. "The only thing I would change is for there to be more competitions and contests," Bedard said.
There is a machine they use in the camp that shoots out a ball and you have .8 seconds to shoot it. This works on shooting technique and developing a quick release. "We use gadgets to improve form and technique," the Skippers head coach said.
Because these kids will ultimately go to North Kingstown High School and try out for the team, it is an opportunity for Thomas to get a glimpse at the future.
