Up to 98 youth, ages third through eighth grade, have been participating in a youth basketball program operated by Junction City Blue Jay head basketball coach Nate Schmitt and his coaches during April through early May.
Schmitt said they there were five sessions beginning on the first Tuesday in April and ending the first Tuesday through May. They focused on teaching the participants fundamentals of basketball. “We’re doing ball handling and shooting and more ball handling and more shooting. If you saw us play at the high school this year we turned it over quite a bit and we didn’t shoot it very well so we’re trying to fix that.”
Schmitt said he wanted to meet all the kids at once, and for them all to know one another. “The biggest thing is I’m getting the opportunity to meet these kids. We’ve got some of our Junior Jays coaches, our middle school coaches, our high school coaches…so we’re meeting the kids, we’re meeting the parents when we come in, our Jays committee is out there handing out information about summer camps and things we have going on.” Schmitt added they’re trying to make a connection and build that relationship so people know what is occurring or who to ask to learn about activities.
The practices included some three-on-three scrimmaging that was added during the final two weeks of the sessions. “Eventually we’d like to maybe do some sort of three-on-three league, an instructional league.” Schmitt welcomed all basketball alumni who want to become involved and help.
