Friday, July 23, 2010

Summer Sport Camps

Sarai, Carmen and Rachel all attended Holy Cross's Basketball camp from July 5th until July 8th. The camp offers three options for attending: sleeping over, staying until 9pm or staying until 5pm. The camp began at 9am every morning. This was Sarai's third year attending; she decided to sleep over. Carmen and Rachel were new to the camp. Carmen stayed until 9 pm and Rachel left at 5. Yes, I sent three girls to the same camp and utilized all three options! Rachel was doing the camp with two friends; all of whom were leaving at 5pm. These two families helped me get Rachel home. I took their daughters and mine in the morning. It worked out nicely.


The Week of July 5th was terribly hot. We had two days when the air temperature was 98. It felt much warmer playing on the outdoor courts. Abram and I went for a bike ride on July 5th. Our bike computer has a thermometer feature. The warmest it read was 105! I am impressed that the girls played hard for each game while it was this hot. Each girl had two games a day. Sarai and Rachel had games at the same time. I would try to split myself between their games, not easy to do on a college campus. Carmen's games were right after. I was able to get a few pictures of them playing.

The camp is run by the head coach of Holy Cross's girls basketball, Coach Gibbons. It is a fantastic camp. All of my girls loved it. Their coaches all play college basketball. Carmen had a male coach and he was as entertaining as she is, perfect match. Sarai's coach was a high school basketball coach. I believe he coaches at Wachusett. The camp is huge, but well organized and run.

It was difficult to see both Rachel and Sarai's games as they happened at the same time. The camp uses the entire Holy Cross campus. Rachel often played in the hockey rink area and Sarai at the other end of campus in the field house. The other issue was that both girls played the same quarters. I tried to see one quarter of each girl's game. I also could only go to the morning games because Tobin was taking driver's ed that week and needed to be picked up at 3:30. Sarai and Rachel played at 10 and 3 each day.

Rachel's division was called the NIT. It was for grades 4-6. There is a small disadvantage for the shorter 4th graders playing against 6th graders that have gone through their growth spurt! Regardless, Rachel played hard and learned a lot.

This is Teresa, one of Rachel's friends that I carpooled with.



Carmen was in the NCAA. This is the largest group at the camp. It is just for grades 7 and 8, but they had as many teams as the younger group and older group combined! Many of Carmen's friends went to the camp too. She loves playing against them in scrimmages. Here she is playing against her friend Leanna.

I believe that she just stole the ball from Leanna. Carmen played spring AAU basketball with Leanna. Carmen was known and used to make steals. She still has it!


Making her fast break after another steal.


Sarai played in the WNBA. It is the group for high school students. Sarai was used as a point guard on her team. Her coach asked if she was trying out to be point guard on her high school team. This is not a position her Shrewsbury coaches use her in. I agree, she would make a good point guard. She is an unselfish player and can see plays and ways to pass the ball to make baskets.


During the camp there are times when you compete with your teammates for most free throws or outside shots. Sarai made the most free throws from her team when they began the contest. She progressed to the next round which was against the best free throw shooters from each team in the WNBA. She made that round too! So on the last day of the camp, in front of all the parents and campers, she competed for most free throws. She made 4 out of 8. The winner made 6, I believe. Even though she didn't win an award she was very happy. It was great to hear friends cheering her on as she made her shots.

After each shot the woman here would give her the ball to shoot again.


I love her form. She really squats down to use her legs in the shot. It works well for her.



The camp was great. Every girl came home tired, as they should, but happy to do it again.

Camp ended on Thurs afternoon. Carmen had one day to recover. She played soccer with a small team at Gillette Stadium on Saturday and then on Sunday morning she went back to Holy Cross. This time she was doing the soccer camp and now she slept over. Pictures from Gillette stadium coming soon.

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