While waiting for the ferry back home after summer hoops camp, Mikayla Elfrank goes for a little stroll. (Amy King photo)
Summer basketball camp is about far more than wins and losses.
Take a look at the previous article and you’ll get a rundown of how the Coupeville High School girls squad did (scores, stats, etc.) on the court at a recent four-day jaunt to Ocean Shores.
For this story, we turn the mic over to CHS assistant coach/team mom Amy King, for her thoughts on what the camp meant to the players and coaches in terms of intangibles.
We had a kind of strange mix of girls but they all did very well together.
The first part of creating team is to divide the girls into rooms with others they may not really know.
It forces a communication that otherwise may never be there.
The girls in each room had to come up with a cool door poster – something fun and creative. Work together in who they are.
Next, David (King) is mentioning a chip – we were at a coaches clinic a few weeks back and this was a great idea that we really wanted to try.
Each side has a theme to it (on one side the name of someone who inspires them, on the other a word which describes the player), so we broke up each side onto different nights.
The girls listened to what we were saying and really put thought into it.
Every one could ask any player or coach what their chip represented to them.
Their explanations for their chip were well thought out, nicely explained and meant a lot to each of us.
The other side was done as well as the first.
Just listening to each girl with their process and answers were very touching and made us so happy to have decided on this particular exercise.
Our beach time — this year it was actually very windy and cold but we had a time slot in between games and took it.
The teams were five girls on each team. Their task? Work together to build a great sand sculpture.
Oh, and we threw in a few surprises this year — one team got a pack of dinosaurs and the other, barn animals. Oh, and two characters to try and fit in.
The girls threw themselves into their work, running around the beach looking for shells or wood to add to their sculptures.
Both unique and impressive in their own way. Each with a story behind it.
This year we established “Story Time with Coach King,” just little stories to give the team something else to think about.
The first story was Mr. King and Mongoose Mentality. It was based on how all these little mongooses come together to defeat the cobra.
The next day was Mrs. King and an original story in poem format, recapturing a playoff game she was a part of — the emotions before, during and after.
Basically talking about holding each other and yourself accountable for your own game.
Aside from all of this, we had spotlighting after each game (each player pointing out one positive from the game to a teammate).
After this we threw a new wrench in — self awareness. Say one thing that you did well.
Talk about difficult. We found it was not easy for the girls to tell themselves they did something well.
That was a whole other discussion, but after the first few times, they did get better.
The coaches and our one crazy fan (Sherry Roberts) participated in all.
From this, to the games, the camp was definitely a success.
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