The Avery Lady Vikings basketball team continues to work to help themselves as well as area girls who love to play the game.Each Thursday in the month of June the Lady Vikings held clinics for all middle school-age girls (rising 7th through 9th graders) who wanted to improve their game.
“Through the month we’ve had about 32 girls who have attended the clinics,” Avery Lady Vikings head coach Missy Lyons said of the clinics. “We have some really good younger talent, so we’ve been really excited about having them join us and working out with us.”
The middle school clinics differed from the usual youth camp in that they were designed more to emulate what a player might experience during a high school basketball practice. After participating in the weekly clinics, a middle school player should have an idea what is expected from them once they reach the high school level.
“We really work to organize the middle school clinics like a high school practice,” Coach Lyons stated. “For many middle school students it’s their first chance to try out for a middle school team, and for the rising 9th graders to try out for a high school team. With that in mind we talk about how to improve and about some of those concepts. There’s a higher intensity to the middle school clinics.”
Not only do the weekly middle school clinics offer training for the present, but it also provides a glimpse into the future of the Lady Viking basketball program, as the middle school players get to train and learn from older players who in a couple of years play alongside them as teammates at Avery High.
“We’re really starting to see the fruits of our labor with the clinics. Katelynn Eudy and Mercedes Bentley attended our clinics in 5th and 6th grade and were able to play with the older girls. Now they are going to be seniors, and I’ve really seen the benefits of them having played in those earlier years,” Coach Lyons stated. “If they’re doing the stuff with us during the summers, I notice when these girls get to the high school level they really sort of fall right in and allows for a smooth transition.”
Despite a busy summer for many people, a good turnout of between 15 and 20 young ladies attended this year’s Lady Viking Basketball Camp, held from June 14-18 for rising third through sixth grade girls. At camp, players learned valuable skills that they can carry into league play for years to come.
This year’s camp, organized by Coach Lyons and instructed with the help of her varsity and junior varsity team members, featured teaching opportunities, floor fundamentals and drills that were useful to learn for the very first time or served as a refresher for those who have grasped them.
“There weren’t quite as many campers as we’d hoped for, but we had a great group of girls, several of which have been coming for several summers now,” Coach Lyons stated during the camp’s final day last week. “It’s really pleasing for me to see how they’ve progressed, and we’ve had some good younger players. Everybody has had a really great time this week.”
Not only does the camp offer instruction to the campers, but offers useful reinforcement to the Lady Vikings high school players who otherwise might not have the time or feel the desire to hone their fundamental skills during the offseason.“This camp is terrific for my high school players who are helping with the camp. It’s an unbelievable learning opportunity for them to work with the kids every day, to interact with them, and to watch them all progress from day to day,” Coach Lyons said.
“A lot of the girls will comment that they didn’t realize how hard it was to officiate a game or work with the girls as a coach or work with them on individual skills. Any time you teach someone else it makes you think about it as well, and I’ve seen that with the girls working with the little girls this year.”
During each day at camp, youngsters were taught a different fundamental of the game, used as a building block in addition to skills learned from the previous days of the camp to come together for a well-rounded skill set.
“We’ve focused on something different every day. One day we focused on defense. Another day we focused on shooting form and another was on ball handling,” the coach added. “We’ve had competitions every day like dribbling relays, hot shot, free throw competitions to give the girls prizes. It’s a great chance for both the young girls in the community as well as my girls who play for me to have the opportunity to come out and to help and work with the campers.”
Due to the renovation at Viking Gym at the high school, the camp was moved to
“We’ve been everywhere over the years with this camp, from the high school to the middle school to the rock gym. The facility at Cranberry is a terrific facility to use as the renovation is taking place at our high school gym,” Coach Lyons explained. “It’s a good opportunity to get to another part of the county and we’ve had a few of the local girls join us this year. I think the move has been okay, but it’s a little hard to have had to move everything in and out each evening. Everything about the location and the camp were great.”
