The next generation of Chickasha hoopers hit the court for an unforgettable experience.
The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma’s women’s basketball program hosted its first annual youth basketball camp this week at USAO’s Drover Fieldhouse.
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The youth camp was open to boys and girls in grades first through eighth and was run by head coach Jay Nayreau and USAO assistant coaches Shaleia Jamison, Mikayla Green and Tyler Causel.
The three-day camp focused on improving skills through individual drills and games, building a foundation for teamwork and offering a fun and inclusive experience for youth athletes. The goal of the camp is not only to develop basketball skills but also to help athletes discover their passion for the game.
“At a young age, all we’re doing is planting seeds. As an educator, you plant the seed and watch it grow,” said Nayreau. “What you have inside of you is yours to hone and harness. But, should you come across somebody that motivates you to do a certain thing? Sometimes it’s difficult to be what you can’t see.”
“The exposure of the camp and working with them early is that they don’t know whether or not they like it just yet. But, coming out, being with their friends, enjoying games and competition, learning skills and developing, it sparks an interest,” said Nayreau. “From an art camp to a sports camp, we want to spark interest, we want to be engaging and we want to have fun.”
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The three-day camp was full of fun and smiles from athletes, whether it was working through dribbling and passing drills, or playing knockout, dragon tails and other fun, competitive games.
Fun is one of the five F’s Nayreau and the USAO coaching staff focused on throughout the camp, and the most important.
Fun, feeling, form, function and flow are the five F’s of the camp, which work alongside one another. But without fun, the others carry less weight, which is why Nayreau and the Drovers’ coaching staff wanted their camp to be as fun as it is educational.
“The medicine is within the sugar, and the sugar is within the medicine,” Nayreau said. “With basketball, we break it down into sections. We’ll start off with agility drills, then it’s a small five to 10-minute segment and then we’ll play a game they enjoy called dragon tails. Where you’re changing direction, but there’s an objective to it, and they’re trying to win.”
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“You can see the complementary aspects of what we do from ladders and skips to change of direction applicable to that,” said Nayreau. “We layer that learning cake and say, here’s the baseline of it, and then we keep adding interest to it. And before they know it, they’re playing a game that’s just specified for dribbling, specified for shooting or specified for passing, and they’re enjoying it without it being this doldrum.”
There was never a dull moment at the Drovers’ basketball camp, which exceeded all the expectations Nayreau had when hosting his first youth camp, and he expects to continue growing and evolving in the future.
“I’d like to do more in the sense of expanding it out to surrounding elementary schools, middle schools and high schools,” said Nayreau. “We could have something that’s unique, that’s completely affordable for parents and that everyone can enjoy, especially in the dog days of summer.”
Although the USAO women’s basketball camp has come to an end, there are plenty more opportunities to improve skills and have fun on the court this summer.
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USAO men’s basketball will be hosting youth and high school camps this summer. The Drovers will host two youth camps for boys and girls of all ages, Jun. 22-24 and Jul. 20-22, as well as an elite camp for high school boys on Jul. 24.
