Sandpoint Lady Ballers AAU program holds basketball skills camp
(Courtesy photo) Four Sandpoint AAU teams, ranging from the 5th grade through the 8th grade, held a four-day skills camp recently at Farmin-Stidwell, and represent a bright future.
SANDPOINT — The Bulldog girls basketball program has been among the top three 4A programs in the state the past few years, and if a thriving AAU program is any indication, future success could be in the cards.
The Sandpoint Lady Ballers four-day basketball camp was held recently at Farmin-Stidwell, where four Sandpoint girls AAU basketball teams came together for four days of skill challenges and station clinics, ending with a 3-on-3 tournament.
Teams represented at camp included the 8th grade Renegades, 7th grade Bombers, 6th grade Titans and 5th grade Futures, all of which play under the Sandpoint Lady Ballers AAU organization, with a total of 32 girls ranging from 9 to 14 years-old.
The camp is a kickoff to the River City AAU Basketball league based out of Post Falls, which starts on Nov. 4 and runs through Jan. 13, with games played every Saturday in Post Falls. Teams in the league consist of Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Lakeland, Timberlake, Bonners Ferry, St. Maries and Kellogg.
The program wished to thank the Sandpoint High School basketball team and coaches for their support with the camp, as several of the Bulldog players helped lead camp and mentor the younger players. Varsity head coach Duane Ward was also present giving several inspirational talks to the girls. Also thanks to Gary and Lisa Cessna for heading up the club and making this all happen, as well as Ponderay School District for use of the Farmin gym. The teams will now break out into their individual team practices and get ready for the season openers.
To finish camp, coaches divided the girls into 10 teams with each team having an 8th/7th grader, a 6th grader and a 5th grader. Teams started out with general pool play to determine seeding for the tournament and bracket positions, before a single elimination tournament, with medals given to the top 3 teams.
The first place team consisted of Aliya Strock, Daylee Driggs and Lotus Martin, second was Allie Pettit, Izzy Reed and Kelsey Cessna, and third was Anna Reinink, Kamron Nadeja and Marelee McCrum.
It was a unique set up where the girls had to figure out how to play with each other very fast as basically all of them had never played together on the same team before and got teamed up minutes before the start of the tournament.