Athletes hone skills during off-season

If you stopped by Green River High School this week, the building may have looked all but deserted as students enjoy their summer break. However, the gym was full of hard-working basketball team members participating in summer camp sessions to practice their skills in preparation for next year.

This is the second year the boys and girls basketball teams have had individual summer camps, according to Girls Basketball Coach Rick Carroll.

"We've brought some individuals in to teach some specific things we want the girls to get better at," Carroll explained. "I think what it does is it gives them another voice for some of those ideas or concepts that we're talking about."

The coaches from GRHS worked with the coaches they brought in to focus on skills the team members needed to learn and to get new ideas to implement, according to Carroll. This year the camps were run by Jeff Culliver and Alex Snyder, coaches from the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

"We're just trying to get some things going and get the girls playing," Carroll said. "So we're working on individual skills and some team things that will help us out in the long run."

The camps include a range of girls who will play for both the varsity and junior varsity teams next year, and some girls who will be joining the program for the first time. Carroll explained there will be a "totally new varsity crew" coming in next year, so getting those girls more time to work on their skills helps with their confidence.

"You make a skilled basketball player by doing stuff in the offseason," Carroll said. "Those girls that spend a lot more time [practicing], you can just see a difference as the season comes."

The camps last throughout the month of June, so the girls' team has been through two camps already, met for several hours on multiple days this week for the current camp, and will have another camp coming up.