By TYLER RALEY | Special to the Reporter

HELENA – The kids of the Helena community were provided the opportunity to develop their skills and create lasting memories at the Helena Basketball Camp from June 24-27 at Helena High School.

Campers spent each day working on specific skills from ball-handling to shooting to defense, while also having fun with each other. It all culminated on the final day, where the kids put those newfound skills to the test in the camp’s annual Competition Day.

The 80 campers that attended this week’s events got to be instructed by the players that they look up to on the Huskies’ varsity boys team, as well as the coaching staff.

For Helena head boys basketball coach Lucas McDonald, he believes that his players assisting with this camp is giving them an opportunity to feed great knowledge to the youth so that they can apply it in their own lives.

“It’s good for them, they get a little taste of what we go through in terms of the coaching aspect,” McDonald said. “It’s good for them to have that opportunity to coach and instruct and get a chance to give some of that knowledge that they’ve learned to these younger kids. It also teaches them a lot about being patient and how to communicate effectively with little guys and girls. It’s challenging at times, but it’s also a great week for them.”

The staff prides itself on being able to give kids the opportunity to make memories and enjoy themselves, but McDonald also makes sure that the camp is a great learning experience that advances the basketball careers that these kids have.

“Camp is all about having fun, obviously we want to have a good time, but also developing skills,” McDonald said. “It’s just all about getting better over the course of the week and having a good time while we’re doing it.”

Even more than providing that learning experience comes making an impact on the community, McDonald believes this camp has the future of Huskies basketball headed in the right direction as he looks to create many consistent years of success for Helena.

“I think it just kind of builds off what we did last year,” McDonald said. “I hope we can just keep growing this here in Helena and the sport of basketball… We want to see these guys in the stands during our games and we’ll have a Camper Appreciation Night as one of our home games. Anything we can do to help grow the interest in the game of basketball here in Helena is going to be great.”