Former Blair Bear Makayla Baughman returned to BHS this week for basketball camp.
The 2022 graduate, who earned Class B all-state honorable mention her senior year, led youngsters in grades 2-5 through drills Tuesday afternoon with help from Bears coach Matt Aschoff and some current high school players, including her soon-to-be freshman sister Avery.
“These little kids are super coachable and they just have really good attitudes,” Baughman said. “It's been really fun.”
The Benedictine College (Kan.) guard wanted to give campers some drills they could do on their own outside of the summer session.
“(We're) just really drilling it into their head that I don't need to go to an hour and a half practice to actually pick up a ball and play,” Baughman said.
Individual skill work was a big part of Tuesday's lessons, too. Before getting to work, the BHS grad said ballhandling and finishes at the rim were to be points of emphasis.
This past college season, Baughman's Ravens won the Heart Women's Basketball Tournament title on March 3, earning a spot in the NAIA national tourney. She said the conference championship victory against MidAmerica Nazarene was the highlight of her basketball career.
Benedictine had healthy crowd support during the finals matchup, too, as the Kansas school's football coach had bussed in two full buses of his players to root on the women's hoops team.
“It was a really cool environment,” Baughman said.
The former Blair basketball standout will be a college senior this fall. She's studying secondary education, and health and exercise sciences, and expects to be student teaching within the year.
This week, though, Baughman decided to share some basketball knowledge with some young campers as well.
