‘We just want them to be excited:’ Burrus using camp to build interest in Lady Zs

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

A team camp photo for those in the fifth through eighth grades

The relationship between the current generation of high school basketball players and the next generation starts at camp.

One of those coaches holding a camp in July was Rochester girls basketball coach Joel Burrus, who brought along varsity players Aubrey Wilson, Brailyn Hunter, Audrey Bolinger, Rylee Clevenger and Ella McCarter and assistant coaches Jacob Nigh and Joe McCarter to host 40 campers at the Rochester Middle School gym last week.

Forty campers attended overall. A group of 26 in kindergarten through fourth grades were dismissed early, and a group of 14 in the fifth through eighth grades stayed for an extra session afterwards.

There were ballhandling relay races, where screaming kids worked on their crossover dribbles. There were shooting drills where players worked on ripping through with their dribble and shooting from the elbow or off the backboard from closer range. And there was the defense and conditioning drill not unlike what one would see before a Lady Z game in which players use their zig-zag dribble and shuffle their feet up and down the court.

Burrus talks to a group of campers in the fifth through eighth grades

“I think you’re seeing with those K-through-4 kids, those are kids that are starting to get established into our biddy league program, and you can see that,” Burrus said. “Some of the older kids in that fourth-through-eighth grade, a couple of those groups have transitioned with our biddy league program, but a couple of those groups were not able to be in our biddy league program. I think you’re starting to see the growth, especially with those younger kids.”

Burrus said he’s still trying to reinforce the numbers of his older campers.

“But we’ve still got to reach these kids that are in that middle school age group,” Burrus said. “But you can definitely see the benefits of the biddy league program is doing for us because these younger kids, you can tell that they’re improving. They look a lot better and more improved from what they were last year when they came to camp.”

Campers have become familiar with the varsity players, whether they go to games in person or not.

“I think that a lot of these kids, if they’re not coming to the games, they’re watching on RTC,” Burrus said. “I think we have a special thing with our kids being able to watch in their living room. That’s something that a lot of schools and a lot of teams don’t have. The thing about that is they may not be coming to our games, but at least they’re watching our games.”

Girls encourage their teammates during a ballhandling competition

Burrus said each camper gets a free pass to attend all Lady Z games. He said crowds started to improve as the season progressed last year, and many in those crowds were younger kids. Last season, the team held a postgame autograph session for the younger kids.

“We just want them to be excited,” Burrus said. “This is a time for them to get to come in and get acclimated with our varsity kids and our coaching staff, and then, when they do come to our games next year, they feel like they have a connection to the players, which I think is a very important thing when you’re talking about the program K-through-12.”

Burrus said he used social media and newspapers to promote the camp.

“Social media is the king of all now when it comes to getting word of mouth now,” Burrus said. “That is the word of mouth nowadays.”

Burrus, who will start his third season as coach this fall, coached a team consisting of seven players last year. There was no JV. All seven players played in all 24 games, in which Rochester went 12-12.

Still, it’s not easy with only seven players, according to Burrus.

“We’re seeing our numbers grow,” Burrus said. “I’m probably never going to be comfortable with where our numbers are just because of what we faced last year at our level. You see these younger kids, but they’re not going to be here next year, the younger kids. But we’ve got to continue to get these kids that are wanting to play and are committed at the junior high level, we’ve got to put a lot of work into them, and … we’ve got to have really good junior high coaches because we’ve got to get those kids to continue to grow and continue to get up to speed. We like the eighth-grade group. We have a few kids missing that are playing softball right now and things like that that are going to be good players.”

One of the standout campers was eighth-grader Hope Baugh.

“Hope Baugh we think she is going to be a really good player for us in the future,” Burrus said. “She’s got a lot of work to do, and she knows that. But we see her athletic ability. Now it’s making her into a basketball player. And we’ve got a few other kids in the middle school. They’ve got that raw athletic ability. Now it’s do we turn them into basketball players?”