Nine of women’s basketball head coach Brady Sallee’s players, plus women’s assistant coaches Anne O’Neil and Megan Sparks, came to the Student Recreation Center to teach girls grades four-12 some basic basketball fundamentals Sunday night.

The camp, which started off with kumbaya circles of the coaches getting to know the players, managed that intimate atmosphere throughout despite the 80 some girls in the gym.

Following some stretching exercises, the girls were split into age groups, and 10 stations were then set up with around eight girls to a station.

Fundamentals of passing would be addressed in the middle floor, while ball handling was taken care of at a station on the left hand corner of the gym and lay-up drills would be practiced on the opposite end.

“This camp is an individual camp that’s based solely on teaching skills,” said Sallee, who’s also the director of the camp. “We’ll work them out according to their ages and their skill levels, but we really try and gear it towards maybe getting kids ready to go and try out for their high school team, or a high school kid to be a starter down the road.”

A 3-on-3 competition went out for around a half hour after the fundamental drills and a lay-up competition, where the girls had to make as many lay-ups with their right and left hands in 30 seconds, concluded the night.

Perhaps the best thing about the camp, though, was the fact that the girls got a chance to be coached by some university athletes on a university court.

“I think it’s the best thing for them,” Sparks said. “Every one of these girls looks up to college athletes, and I think it’s great that our players have the chance to give back to the community and teach little girls stuff that they’ve learned and stuff that they already know.”

Future Nokomis high school players Kelsey Chausee and Jenna Clavin did both the individual skills camp and the team camp earlier in the day.

Chausee comes from a sports family, as according to her mother Beth, her younger brothers play everything and her younger sister plays soccer and softball. Chausee plays both volleyball and basketball, and in addition to the team camp and the skills camp, has been involved or will be involved in five more camps this summer.

“I like them both, probably the team camps so you can play games, but I liked [this camp] because they were able to help us a lot,” Kelsey Chausee said.

“Yea, I enjoy being able to play with your actual teammates,” said teammate Clavin.

Also at the girls camp was Katie Hempen, who went up against the boys at their camp last week. Although she did not seem to mind playing against the boys, she seemed to have more fun at this camp.

“[I like] probably the girls [better], because it’s more fun, and I know a lot more people,” said Hempen.

“It’s always fun to get the girls out here and have our players interact with the younger kids,” Sallee said, “see how much fun those younger kids have, and I think they’re excited to be around those kids, and I think those kids are excited to do it. It’s a good chance to show your stuff on the college campus, so it’s not a bad deal.”