For love of the game

It was the last day of the Thompson Falls girls' basketball camp for kindergarten through sixth graders on Wednesday, and Ladyhawks high school girls' coach Jason Reimer wanted to make sure that all the girls were ready to finish the day working hard and having fun.

It was the last day of the Thompson Falls girls' basketball camp for kindergarten through sixth graders on Wednesday, and Ladyhawks high school girls' coach Jason Reimer wanted to make sure that all the girls were ready to finish the day working hard and having fun.

After explaining to them that at the end of the three-hour day they were scheduled to have an epic waterfight and a championship celebration, he motivated them to keep up the hard work that they had started on Sunday.

"We have got to do a lot of basketball. I want you guys to work harder today than you worked the first three days. It's the very last day, so if you're like ‘ugh I'm ready for basketball camp to be over,' change your mindset and say this is the last day for me to work my tail off and to get after it in the gym and get better," preached Coach Reimer.

With that he sent the 24 girls out onto the basketball court to run drills hoping that the young basketball students would not only work hard and have fun, but keep the mindset as a foundation for their future prep careers.

"The biggest thing is we're just trying to build a program and get girls playing early. The most important thing for the first, second, third and fourth graders this week is that they have fun and have a good experience. They leave here really liking the game. That's more important than the skills at this point," said Coach Reimer. "I want them to leave here wanting to play basketball."

Of course, Reimer along with his other instructors that included former Ladyhawk star, Rheanna Padden, were still busy teaching the fundamentals such as teaching pivoting with the basketball, the jump stop and how to shoot layups properly.

However, many of these teaching moments came with a fair dose of fun mixed in.

While working on defensive drills the girls had their faces painted either blue or yellow after the school's colors or red meaning toughness.

While they practiced dribbling the coaches sent the kids weaving through a course to see how fast they could go while dribbling a basketball. They call it dribble mania. They also competed in speed layups and hot shot, a shooting competition.

It's a perfect combination for younger, high-energy kids that can keep the day camps pretty entertaining.

"They're really fun. They love playing. Some kids come up the next day and say ‘coach I went home last night after camp and I practiced some more.' We use them as examples of hard work and toughness." We just want to teach them to love the game and work hard," says Coach Reimer.

Although this year the only girls having a Thompson Falls camp will be in gradeschool, Coach Reimer says there will be a camp for high school next summer. In the meantime the high school girls have been attending open gyms, doing summer shooting programs and Coach Reimer hopes to have a small team camp at the end of July.

Another camp that Coach Reimer would really like to see in the future is an all Sanders County high school girls' camp. He envisions a big camp event with 30-40 girls there camping out in either Plains or Thompson Falls, but also bringing in girls from Hot Springs and Noxon as well.

Although he would love to work together with the other teams at a county-wide camp. Coach Reimer said he is excited for the competition in the next few years against an up and rising Plains girls' team with their new Coach Richard Griffin.

"I'm looking forward to the next few years with Plains. I think they have a good team coming up. They're gonna have a good team. We want to maintain a good program. We want to help each other get better," says Coach Reimer.