Pine High School held its annual basketball camp, which taught the participants different skills of the sport.

“Every summer, we do summer camp for our kids that are pre-K through sixth grade age to help us raise money for our basketball program,” Pine girls basketball coach Mary McGinnis said. “With the money we raise this week, we’re actually going to the University of Arkansas Little Rock at the end of the summer to go to camp. This helps us pay for the camp, our hotel rooms and things like that.”
McGinnis said the clinic had about 60 children this year.

“It’s been really good,” McGinnis said. “The kids have been good. They’ve all been working really hard. Our girls work the camp, so it is really a good experience for them too.”

McGinnis feels that her players having to teach the skills really helps them.

“Sometimes when you have to break down the skills, it helps you to understand the skill itself better,” McGinnis said.

McGinnis had several stations set up, which included shooting where the campers worked on follow through and form. There was a defensive station that taught the participants defensive slides. They also had a jump stop and pivot station where the campers learned jump stops, front pivots and back pivots. The ball-handling station taught one- and two-ball dribbling. At the passing station, they were taught how to do the figure-eight pass, chest pass, bounce pass. The dribbling station was where they learned how to do crossovers, scissor dribbles and pool dribbles (behind the back). They also had a layup station where the participants worked on left and right-handed layups.

McGinnis said it’s always fun to see the kids get better.

“We’ve a lot of these kids that for some of them, this is their third year with us. To watch how much they’ve improved from year to year, it’s been good to watch,” McGinnis said.