As youngsters poured into the Fort Calhoun High School gym for a basketball camp Wednesday morning, junior high and high school hoopers picked up their new T-shirts on their way out.
Printed across the front of the gray garment was an acronym important to coach Marty Plum's girls program, A.T.T.A.C.K. It stands for values he wants for his players inside the gym and out. He wants them to appreciate (A) everything they do, to be tough (T), to do things together (T), to be aggressive (A), to always compete (C) and to do so with the knowledge (K) necessary.
“Attack is an aggressive word,” Plum said. “We want to be aggressive with the things that we do.”
On Wednesday, FCHS was hosting the second day of its summer basketball camp. The high school and junior high Pioneers started the morning in the gym before the youngsters going into grades 2-6 next fall came in at 10 a.m.
No matter their age, the campers were to attack the day.
“That's the type of philosophy that we're trying to implement top-to-bottom with all of our kids in the community,” Plum said.
Most importantly, though, the coach wanted the 2 hours of hoops to be enjoyable, too.
“You just want the kids to come in, have a great experience, have some fun, and learn a few things about basketball,” he said.
The young Pioneers did that through games and competitions. An important part of camp were the “driveway drills,” as Plum called them.
“During our elementary camp, we try to do stuff that, 'We did it at camp and I can go home and do this at home,'” the head coach said.
The morning of basketball's overall purpose, however, was printed on the camp flyer. It was to “emphasize the importance of fundamentals; shooting, passing, ball handling, defensive concepts and much more all with the aid of our high school players and coaching staff!”
