Youth sports

BREWER – Three weeks of pure basketball – practicing ball-handling skills and working on offense and defense.

That’s what the basketball camp Summer Heat is all about. Brewer High School boys basketball coach Mark Reed directs the camp and is assisted by Brewer Middle School boys basketball coach Don Stanhope.

They started the basketball clinic five years ago to help players in grades three through eight practice their basketball skills beyond the regular season.

“The large part is for athletes this age to use defense and shooting techniques. Outside of the season there is no pressure,” Stanhope said.

The clinic helps players gain skills that better prepare the players before the regular season starts, he explained.

“It’s helping me a lot with my ball handling,” said Ben Brochu, 12, of Brewer.

A recent Summer Heat session started up with the boys shooting around and having fun with their friends. Then the coaches called the players together to tell them the plans for the day.

The first drill was a game called dribble-tag, which looked lie a lot of fun and helped the players with their dribbling skills. One person stood in the middle of the gym, dribbling a ball, and the rest of the boys had to dribble past him without getting tagged.

When someone did get tagged, he had to stay in the same spot and keep dribbling, and try and tag other players until the game was over. The first winner of the game was Andrew Meehan, 13, of Brewer.

The camp is popular.

“In the 13- to 14- [year] group we have about 20 [players],” Stanhope said. “We had about four or five leave [for family vacations or other sports commitments], but then we had four or five new kids come and join.”

There are two age groups in the Summer Heat program: grades three to five from noon to 2 p.m. and grades six to eight from 2 to 4:30 p.m. The players attend the three-week program Monday through Thursday.

Coby Hutchins said that his favorite part of Summer Heat was “scrimmaging, because it’s fun.”

All the 13- and 14-year-olds looked very enthusiastic about the games. They were having fun, but they also looked determined to try and win.

Chris Corey, 14, of Brewer said he’s involved in the camp because, “I like basketball and I want to work on my skills.”

Stanhope also explained that a lot of kids from Greater Bangor are at the camp. The players build friendships and don’t get upset over wins and losses when they play on opposite teams during the school season, he added.

“There’s a lot of rivalry from between the teams in season, and now that they’re participating in something together, they can all become friends,” Stanhope said.

Matt McLaughlin, 13, is interested in receiving youth sports news. Items may be e-mailed to bdnsports@bangordailynews.net.