Playing basketball in the summer is something of a tradition in the Wood River Valley, dating back 40 years when local coaches Fred Trenkle and Phil Homer used to run their Wood River summer cage camps in Hailey.
It was inexpensive and fun. It’s pretty much the same now.
Two coeducational basketball camps are planned this summer at Wood River High School gym in Hailey.
Seizing the baton from the late Jim Boatwright, who ran Snowline Basketball Camp in Hailey for nine years, operators of the new Wolverine Coed Cage Camp are current Wood River High School girls’ basketball coach Matt Newhouse and Wood River boys’ basketball head coach Andy Miles.
Newhouse and Miles are educators whose focus is teaching individual skills and team concepts. Their short- and long-term goals are to increase what they call basketball “IQ” in the Wood River Valley. Their campers this summer will have a chance to play about 20 games during the week.
The other camp is operated by Carson Sofro. He was raised in the Wood River Valley, played basketball at the Community School and has become a basketball camp director for a nationwide camp business.
Wolverine Coed Cage Camp
Boys and girls enrolled in grades 6-8 can attend the Newhouse-Miles summer camp, which will be held Monday through Saturday, June 10-15 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The six-day camp concludes with awards and an All-Star game from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, June 15.
In the camp brochure, the coaches wrote, “Our commitment is to make certain each camper has the best camp experience possible. Our goal is to accomplish this by providing campers with the individual attention they need to improve their game.”
Most instruction and coaching will be the responsibility of current Wood River High girls’ and boys’ basketball players and staff. It will take place in the lower and upper gyms at Wood River High, with some game action likely to take place in the afternoon at the Community Campus gym.
Two 45-minute fundamental stations will be conducted daily, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each camper will be placed on a team for the week. Every day, each camper will play at least three 30-minute games divided into two 14-minute halves with a two-minute halftime period.
Every camp day will also include mandatory free throw shooting and recording and intense ball-handling sessions/games led by camp directors.
Campers bring their own lunches. The instructors focus on individual and group instruction in fundamental skills. Games are played daily in team competitions. There are awards given for free throw champions and jump shot champions.
Cost is $125 per person for this year’s camp. Fees include a camp t-shirt and a basketball. Lunch is not provided.
Send registration forms to Wolverine Cage Camp, Wood River High School, 1250 Fox Acres Rd., Hailey 83333. You can email coach Newhouse at mnewhouse@blaineschools.org or call him at 578-5020 ext. 2252 or call assistant coach Chris Koch at 720-6608.
Hot Shot Basketball Camps
Camp director Sofro, a former hoops star at the Community School of Sun Valley and the University of Redlands in California, has announced the seventh summer of his Hot Shot Basketball Camps (www.hsbcamps.com).
“Elevate Your Game” is the camp slogan. Boys and girls are welcome. The presence of coaches/pros like Mike Harris, Felipe Lopez, Ryan Appleby and Greg Clausen is one of the camp’s big attractions.
The Hailey full-day camp for boys and girls entering grades 4-12 is Monday, July 29 through Wednesday, July 31, at the high school in Hailey. Times are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost is $175, same as last year. Participants are separated into groups based on age and playing ability.
Running in the same July 29-31 timeframe and at the same location is the morning clinic for grades K-3, from 9 a.m. to noon. Cost is $99. Fundamental drills and contests are emphasized for the little kids. Registrations are accepted online on a first-come, first-served basis.
Included in the fee for each camp is a free camp t-shirt, basketball and giveaways from camp sponsors. Those in the full-day camp receive a detailed evaluation.
Besides his Hailey camps, Sofro has similar camps scheduled this summer for June 20-22 at Canyon Ridge High School in Twin Falls, June 24-26 at Boise’s Capital High School and July 8-10 at Mountain View High School in Bend, Ore. His camps are also planned in Texas, Washington state and Wyoming.
Sofro said about his Hot Shot Camps, “It has been an amazing journey as we are beginning to really receive some national attention and it all started right here in our little valley.”
