High school coaches teach basics to area youth

Nearly 90 kids in grades kindergarten through eighth turned out for the four-day basketball camp at the Bigfork schools.

"We got a lot of positive feedback and overall I think it was a great experience for the kids. We just loved being a part of it," said Paul La Mott, who hosted the camp with Mark Hansen.

Hansen and La Mott, who are the high school head girls and boys basketball coaches, respectively, worked with the kids on their ball handling and shooting each day of the camp.

They also mixed in passing, rebounding, defense and game theory.

"It's amazing to know that you can see improvement in the kids in four short days," La Mott said. "I think the idea in a perfect world is that they find the sport enjoyable and that they find an ability to improve when given instructions"

To keep the kids' enthusiasm up, the coaches also worked in some skill-related games.

"They were a really good group of kids and we felt like they all had a good time," La Mott said. "It's a camp to learn basketball and we definitely did that. We were really there to have fun though and to get to know some of the kids. We just want to build a solid core for basketball in Bigfork."

To keep track of all the participants, Hansen and La Mott enlisted the help of high school basketball players McKinze Shults, Taylor Peck, Caitlin Charlebois, Ian Lorang, Connor Coleman, Christian Kerr, Jackson Boese and Dillon Fraley.

La Mott said that he was thankful for their help with the camp as well as the generous donations from local businesses FitEx 24, Brookies Cookies and the Garden Bar.