Serious about fundamentals

There was some heavy debate going on between team blue as they watched team yellow and team black battle on the basketball court, perched atop the backed-up bleachers in the Thompson Falls high school gym.

There was some heavy debate going on between team blue as they watched team yellow and team black battle on the basketball court, perched atop the backed-up bleachers in the Thompson Falls high school gym.

Team blue was deciding who they wanted to win the game. After all, they would have to play the winner and with a shot at the championship and milkshakes on the line they didn't want to take any chances.

Fifth grader Dylan Beckman, a self-admitted ball hog who the other two dub the dribbler of the team, observes that the yellow team likes to press and that they would need to work together in order to win.

Delaney Weltz, a fourth grader, couldn't help but notice that the teams also were playing really competitively. She's the screener.

Fifth grader Kyran Kenison makes up the last player on the three-person team, and he's the bank-shooter.

The three youngsters were just three children participating in Thompson Falls' annual summer basketball camp for grades all the way from first to twelfth.

For three hours over the course of four days, children learned fundamentals ranging from something as basic as dribbling to the more advanced team defense.

"We try to teach the fundamentals correctly. This feeds our junior high and high school program. We want to teach them correctly now and hopefully they rehearse it during the summer when the play on their own," explains Chadd Laws who has hosted the camp since 2000.

It's the fundamentals that Laws and the other coaches hammer home during the first day of camp. The next two days they split the days into two parts, fundamentals and league competition.

Then, on the last day, the basketball students receive a final review of the fundamentals and then move onto their final championship game.

As demonstrated by the seriousness of the blue team, no matter how young the players are once they get on the basketball floor and they start playing their league games, Laws says it's all business.

"It's just absolutely awesome watching the little first, second and third graders playing in their league games, because it is just a riot watching them. They're playing so hard. Every kid in the gym has a red face and is sweating at the end of the day," says Laws.

For the Thompson Falls' high school basketball coach, this camp kick starts a summer's worth of basketball for Laws that includes coaching at another camp at Carroll College and bringing his high school team to two basketball tournaments.

However, even though he is used to teaching teenagers he says he can still learn quite a bit from the gradeschoolers.

"They teach me to slow down and explain it again and again. That's something that we as coaches need to remember coaching high school kids too. We never should assume anything," says Laws.