BY WENDI REARDON PRICE

Clarkston News Sports Writer
Young Cagers used the first week of summer vacation to work on their skills during Dare to Dream Basketball Camp.
“It is going excellently,” said Christine Rogers, head coach for Clarkston Girls Varsity Baskeball as she watched over 70 campers bounce the basketballs in Clarkston High School gymnasium.
“The girls are so much fun,” she said. “The varsity players are working with them. It’s always nice just to see the energy of the little kids. They are so silly and hard-working.”
Rogers added they had the highest number of participants in the older division.

“We have about 15 girls in the ninth grade group which is odd because usually they are at summer camps, in travel ball or on vacation,” she explained. “It’s great because we have a really good freshman class coming up to play. Just giving them more experience with each other is good because eighth grade teams are separate then in ninth grade they are together.”
Another perk is they get to work with players they look up to like Maddie Beck, Kayla Luchenbach and Molly Nicholson.
“They can learn from them because they are at the level where they have the skills,” Rogers said.
Girls in grades third through ninth had stations for passing drills, rebounding drills, ballhandling drills, shooting, defense, pivoting, one-on-one skills and scoring.
The campers would play two short games after each station so they could use the skills they just worked on.
Rogers added they saw improvements from the first day of camp.
“Especially little girls with the concept of dribbling, but by the fourth day they are are basketball players,” she explained. “Their shots are improving. Kids go from shooting with two hands to working on their form and mostly they are boxing out.”
Winners for the three contests were: Ava Wasilk, Morgan Hunter and Georgia Bosart in Free Throw Knock Out; Ella Pierce, Charlotte Peplowski and Olivia Peplowski in Hot Shot; Bosart, Hunter and Makayla Butki in Lightning.
Dare to Dream is held through Clarkston Community Education and Independence Township Parks, Recreation and Senior. For more information or to check out other camps and activities offered this summer please visit www.itpr.org.

  Dare to Dream, Summer Sports Camps