Wildfire basketball emphasizes ‘game experience’

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Wildfire basketball program has seen players improve their skills tremendously over the course of the camp.
Head instructor Kyle Larson has seen a great deal of positives out of the players but knows there is still room for improvement for both groups.
“I’ve said for the long time, what our kids lack is game experience, so running this for the older boys in the spring league, it’s giving them a lot of opportunities,” said Larson. “The level of play is increasing. The kids are playing better and better each week.”
The emphasis in the camp is to enhance the players’ skills without taking the fun out of the game.
“Still focusing mainly on fundamentals, but the kids would like to play some zone defense but we’re playing all man-to-man,” said Larson. “And being more aggressive, taking the ball to the basket, even defensively, being aggressive and up-tempo.”
For the younger group, the program serves as an introduction to the game and focuses more on their skillset.
“It’s working on fundamentals and drill-type stuff and really breaking down the game in segments of what we’re looking for from the kids both offensively and defensively,” said Larson.
Over the years, the camp has seen an increase of players and as a result the game has grown locally.
According to Larson, the boys’ team is strong with 65 boys participating, while the girls have dropped off slightly to nearly 30 players. With such strong numbers, Larson would like to see better competition for these kids.
“We’ve only played in a couple of tournaments and that would be the only thing, is to try to give another level of competition for some of the kids,” he added. “I would like to see us continue getting them started early and creating an interest in the game.”