Sports council holds summer camp
Young athletes, wannabe athletes and just spectators yearning to be in the game, as long as you are between the ages of eight and thirteen there may be a solution to the summertime blues. This morning the National Sports Council started it’s second annual sports camp and News Five’s Arreini Palacio was there.
Arreini Palacio, Reporting
Kids you’ll be glad to know there is one summer camp where you don’t get to sit down in a classroom all day.
New Horizons Sports Camp 2000, sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Sports, got underway this morning. Over eighty-five kids will get the chance to learn football, volleyball, basketball
and softball for the next two weeks. The National Sports Council’s Events Manager Yvette Smith said the children have the opportunity to choose which sports they prefer.
Yvette Smith, Events Manager
“What they do is that they sign up for two sports. For the first session which is about an hour, they do their first choice and after that they take a break about fifteen minutes, and then they go onto their second choice.”
Whether first or second choice, the children will have national players in every sport volunteering as camp instructors.
Charlie Slusher, Football Instructor
“I am glad that I got the opportunity to teach the kids, you know I am a player that is getting old I need to retire and I hope that some of these kids can do something for football in Belize.”
Taeko Inoue, Volleyball Instructor
“These children are all just starting, so we have to teach them the simple basic, how to serve and pass the ball. The most important things in volleyball.”
Cuthbert Gibson, Basketball Instructor
“Most people, the only basketball, football or volleyball they play is in their backyard or with their friends. They don’t really learn the basics. We are going to teach them the basics, like for basketball we have passing, shooting, dribbling, that’s the basics to get them into the game. At later age, they can better their skills whatever. It is not to make them athletes or superstars or the next Michael Jordan, but all we want to do is give them an opportunity to understand the game, know the basic skills and help them.”
While on the road to being like Mike starts with just the basics, according to softball instructor Derrick Jones, learning to play the sport involves more than just learning to hit the ball.
Arreini Palacio
“What do you anticipate will be the greatest challenge to the children in learning softball.”
Derrick Jones, Softball Instructor
“Just not being afraid. Quite a number are afraid because they see softball, it is hard and it can hurt and stuff like that. So we just need to get them to be less afraid and more aggressive, they will learn what it takes to become softball players.”
Making good players is the main objective of the camp and according to Smith we should expect to see good results at the end of the two week session.
Yvette Smith
“I won’t say professional, but the skills that we are able to teach, I expect them to do it very well.”
Arreini Palacio for News Five.
Softball instruction takes place at Rogers Stadium, while basketball, volleyball and football camps are held at the City Centre. Parents interested in having their children attend the camp are asked to register them at the National Sports Council office at the City Centre.
