Every summer, students at Arcadia High School (AHS)  get to show off and improve their basketball skills at AHS’ basketball booster camp. The camp is a great opportunity for students aspiring to join the AHS Basketball team, as well as for Coach Nick Wallace to assess the players. 

The camp is a rigorous six-week program that starts on June 20 and ends on July 29. Each day is two hours long, and has two alternative sessions running from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and 1 p.m to 3 p.m, respectively. The camp is available to all students interested in basketball who are entering 7th through 12th grade. The first session is hosted in Arcadia’s North gym, while the second session is hosted in the South gym.

The first 30 minutes to an hour of the camp is spent doing various dribbling and conditioning drills. The dribbling drills include one handed dribbling, V-dribles, between-the-leg dribbles, between-the-back dribbles, and various combinations of dribbles paired with live defenders. The conditinoning drills include full-court sprints at various speeds; and suicides, a drill where players have to sprint from baseline to the free-throw line and back, half-court line and back, other free-throw line and back, and other baseline and back.

After that, the next 30 minutes to an hour the players are split into a high school division and middle school division. The players spend this time working on specific aspects of their game like shooting, dribbling, one-on-one “isolation” gameplay, and defense. During the first three weeks of camp, the players work mostly on offense, dribbling, finishing, and shooting drills. During the last three weeks of camp, the players work mostly on defensive slides and closeouts.

The next 30 minutes to 45 minutes of camp is spent playing pickup five-on-five, four-on-four, and three-on-three games. The coaches select the captains, who then pick members to be on their team. 

The players spend the final five to 10 minutes of camp doing conditioning drills. These drills include six inches, where you have to lift both your feet six inches off the ground while laying down; stretching; push-ups; and jumping-jacks. After that, the coach gathers every player and has them form a circle around the big Apache sign in the gym to give some pep-talk. The team then ends on a “One, two, three, Apaches!” chant.

Coach Wallace stated that, “When tryouts come [the summer camp could help us] evaluate the kids and their skill sets”. During the camp, he also repeatedly said that he will “remember you at tryouts if you hustle.”

When asked how going to the tryouts will help you make the team; Sophomore Nathan Gaw, who recently made the Boys Freshman/Sophomore (Frosh) Basketball team as a guard, said that, “I got to know the coaches better and they had a preview of my ability to score the ball efficiently. [My freshman year] I didn’t join summer camp so I got cut.”

Sophomore Desmond Liu, who was in the Boys Frosh Basketball team his freshman year and got moved up to the Boys JV Basketball team says that during the camp the coach constantly “watches how you improve” and “how much skill you have.”

With the Boys Basketball tryouts just finishing in the last week of August, the roster spots for the Boys Frosh, JV, and Varsity Basketball teams have been filled. We wish our Apache’s good luck in the upcoming 2022-2023 basketball season!

Photo courtesy of APACHE NEWS