North Adams varsity boys coach Nathan Copas hands out individual awards on the final day of his 2022 Green Devils Basketball Camp. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Dribble Knockout is always a popular competition at almost every basketball camp. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
As summer winds down, the final basketball camp of the season took place at North Adams High School from July 25-28 as Green Devils’ varsity boys coach Nathan Copas and his staff entertained 23 third through sixth grade boys for three hours a day of instruction and competition.
Most basketball camps are held earlier in the summer, but because of numerous conflicts, one of which being the NAHS gym floor being resurfaced, Coach Copas has the distinction of the final camp of the summer.
“Just like most basketball camps, we work on simple fundamentals like dribbling and passing and they’r kids who want to have fun and compete a little bit,” said Copas on the camp’s final day. “We try to incorporate all the fundamentals we teach into actually playing the game.”
“Hopefully they all had a good time.”
Camp wasn’t the only thing occupying the mind of Coach Copas this summer as his varsity Green Devils squad, one of the very early-on favorites in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference this winter, have been busy with a productive series of summer outings.
“We had a pretty good summer, pretty competitive,” said Copas. “Summer is about working some things out and seeing what you need to focus on going into fall. We’ve added some things that we think may help us and maybe gotten rid of some things that we thought we were going to do. Summer is an assessment and it’s a lot about the kids playing together but also about a lot of individual work, getting in the weight room, working on their skills and drills.”
“We’ve got a few boys that are really pushing it and doing some good stuff and that should pay off in the winter. I was pleased with the summer work, not really focused on winning or losing, although we did win a lot. We’re focused on figuring out what our identity will be.”
The campers at the 2022 Green Devils Camp included:
3rd-4th Grade: Raylan Davis, Lance Martin, Beckett Garrison, Branson Geeslin, Rylan Souder, Corbin Young, Rayce Young, Jaeger Osborne, Kaden Edingfield, Ryker Manning, Kade Cornette, Liam Wilmoth, Kaden Dotson, Levi Lahmers
5th-6th Grade: Keith Sowards, Jace Michael, Kai Bosko, Drew McCann, Crew Wilson, Kruze Winkler, Maverick Winkler, CJ Boner, Dawson Souder.
North Adams high school players who assisted in the camp were Bransyn Copas, Preston Call, Collin Tolle, Bradley Rhoden, Carson Osborne, Jace Rothwell, Dalton Pence, Alex Shupert, Hunter Brown, Breestin Schweickart and Lane Martin.
Coach Copas was also assisted by JV Coach Blake Bradley and Freshman Coach Austin McCormick.
