ARLINGTON — The proof of what summer camps can do for a program was on the chests of the Arlington boys.
On the final day of Eagles basketball camp, June 24, the members of Arlington’s boys basketball program all had matching T-shirts on. The shirts were handed out to the winner of the Everett Summer Basketball League.
“This was huge for us,” said boys coach Nick Brown. “We’ve been playing really well this year and almost all of the kids on my team have been at this camp since they were in second grade.”
The Arlington boys went 19-1 this spring, but while the wonder of a championship kept the boys’ attention, it was quickly gone when Brown started handing out Otter Pops.
“We almost had a revolt last year because we didn’t have Otter Pops,” he said.
The importance of these summer camps in building a program isn’t up for debate, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be fun. Brown holds contests and gives out prizes from local sponsors and Arlington basketball memorabilia throughout the three-hour session.
“We keep it light,” he said. “It’s all about learning the fundamentals at this level.”
But there is a little more to it than that.
Coaches like Brown and girls coach Nathan Davis also get to see how their players handle teaching the skills they should have a firm grasp on.
“I think the players learn just about as much as the girls do,” said Davis. “They can say they know how to do something, but once you have to teach somebody else, then you really have to know it.”
Both Davis and Brown said working with the high school coaches early on helps develop a symmetry all the way up through junior high in what is expected and how to contribute.
Unfortunately, numbers are down for the older players — meaning from fourth grade to high school.
“I think kids are just becoming more specialized, and you see that in the summer,” Brown said. “Our younger kids camp was packed, but as they get a little older, they decide on one thing or another.”
Brown said he had around 100 kids at his younger kids camp and about 40 in the middle school range. Davis, however, got about 60 between the two.
“I don’t really know what is going on, it could be the economy or just not knowing about it,” he said. “But the numbers have been going down recently. I remember a couple years ago we’d get 90 girls.”
Eagles basketball programs are poised to achieve even more success than they had in 2009, coming just a game or two away from the state tournament. The boys defeated three-time defending champion Burlington-Edison in the Everett league, and recently went down to the Garfield invitational and placed fifth, just behind powerhouses Garfield, Rainier Beach and Franklin.
