Mike Soucy is passionate about basketball.
Anyone who has watched him coach a game has seen that.
This time of the year, he wants to pass that passion along.
Starting July 19, the Hollis/Brookline High School boys basketball coach will host the Cavaliers Summer Basketball Camp for the third straight year. Soucy, along with members of his coaching staff, current varsity players and alumni, will work with players entering Grades 4 through 9 in the fall.
And this year, there have been a few changes.
For the first time, the camp will be divided into morning and afternoon sessions. Players in Grades 4-6 will go from 8 a.m. to noon, and Grade 7-9 will go in the afternoon from 1 to 6 p.m.
“I think we’ll come close to filling both sessions,” Soucy said. “Last year, we did grades fifth through eight and we ran the camp from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon. The age disparity was too great. The incoming sixth graders and the incoming eighth graders were worlds apart. Plus we thought the time frame was too long for some kids.”
While the camp is open to anyone in the area, Soucy expects to get mostly kids from the Hollis and Brookline communities.
“Right now, it’s mostly Brookline kids,” he said. “We’re trying to get more Hollis kids to come right now. The intent of the camp is to develop the passion for the game. We’ll teach them some skills, we’ll do a lot of fun games, we give out prizes. Everybody gets a T-shirt.”
In the past, Soucy has also been able to give away the basketballs used in the camp to anyone who wanted one. But after having some left over a year ago, no new ones were orders, so that might be limited to just the younger campers.
That’s just one more thing he’s learned since starting the camp.
“I think we had 63 kids at that (first) camp and I told my coaching staff afterward ‘we reached our limit,’ ” he said. “We do everything inside, we don’t have any outdoor facilities (at the school). We have the large gym and the small gym, and really 60 kids is about the limit of the camp in order for the kids to benefit.”
With two sessions this year, there will be two groups of up to 60 kids each. Players will not only be working with Soucy and his assistant coaches, they’ll also get instruction from high school players who are either on, or will be on, the varsity team, along with former high school players.
And that’s where the learning experience Soucy enjoys really gets interesting.
“Not only do they (high school players) teach, but once we have groups we split them up into teams,” he said. “They have to work with their teams. We have team practices and each (player) is a head coach, or an assistant coach, to a team. They’ve got to strategize and they’ve got to coach the game.
“I think it gives them a very different perspective because they’ll come up to me every once in awhile and say ‘coach they aren’t listening.’ We’ll make them officiate some games. That’s eye-opening, too. It’s not an easy job. It’s a great experience for them.”
And if everything goes right, it ends up being a great experience for the kids.
“The reality is we want this to be a learning experience for all these younger kids,” Soucy said. “We want this to become a passion for the game of basketball that I have, and my other coaches have, and that my players have. That’s how we build that program and sustain success.”
For more information, go here Cavaliers BBall Camp 2010. To register, Camp Application 2010 go here or call 566-8535.