By Wendi Reardon Price
Staff Writer
wprice@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — The Dan Fife Field House at Clarkston High School was filled with the sound of basketballs bouncing off the court and whistles as over 200 young athletes took over the court to play the sport.
The athletes were part of four camps – Fife Basketball Camp, for boys entering grades 7-9, July 8-11; Fife Fundamentals Basketball Camp, for boys entering grades 4-6, June 24-27; Mini Ballers Basketball Camp for boys entering grades kindergarten-3 and girls entering kindergarten-2, June 24-27; and Dare to Dream, for girls entering grades 3-9, June 10-12.
In Mini Ballers Basketball Camp the young cagers worked on the fundamentals of basketball with stations on shooting, ball handling, passing, pivoting, defense, rebounding and footwork. It also included 5-on-5 games and contests in free throws, lightning, hot shot and 1-on-1.
The camp, which had 65 players, is designed for beginning and experienced players.
“You could really see with the mini ballers from day one to day four the improvement,” said Tim Wasilk, head coach for Clarkston Boys Varsity Basketball. “Some of them are seeing the game and playing the game for the first time. To see an improvement each day was pretty cool.
“When we do contests the first day, they struggle with it,” he added. “By day two, three and four, it just starts to click and flows. When they do station work with ball handling and defense and shooting, the comfort level for the kids grows over the four days and is good to see.
Fife Fundamentals Basketball Camp had 75 players and ended it’s last day with 5-on-5 single elimination tournament for a team camp champion and awards for contest in hot shot, free throws, knock out lightning and 1-on-1.
Wasilk added they gave out awards for MVPs, MIPs, two Coach’s Awards and two Hustle awards.
“It was really cool for the kids,” he said.
Throughout the four day game, the players rotated through eight stations to work on fundamentals. All the fourth, fifth and sixth graders also played together in 5-on-5 games.
“They are all mixed in,” said Wasilk. “If you have some fourth graders playing at a higher level, they get to play with fifth and sixth graders. It’s nice to see.”
He added it was also nice to see repeat campers.
Fife Basketball Camp had 65 participating this year in the more competitive camp. The campers also worked on their basketball skills through doing the fundamentals. They also had 5-on-5 games and contests for free throws, lightning, hot shot and 1-on-1.
All camps were led by head coaches of the programs, their coaching staff and varsity players.
“Our coaches, our counselors, our varsity players did a good job with camp,” Wasilk said. “They were in situations they had to ref, coach and develop relationships with the kids. It’s a good experience for them. Most of our varsity players have played in the camps during the summer or even McGrath (League in the winter). It’s definitely a good thing for them to learn basketball and be around our varsity kids and our coaches and come up through the program and see what we are all about.”
The basketball camps were held through Clarkston Community Education. For more, visit www.clarkston.k12.mi.us/community/communityeducation.

  Basketball, Camps