I recently had the pleasure of attending my first Sussex Team camp. Over the years I’ve heard many good things about the camp but due to work commitments, I have never been able to enter a team until now. I’ll start by saying everything I heard about the camp was true. Gale and Peter were great hosts, the staff at Bethany Bible College were fantastic and the competition was excellent.
Going into the camp I was worried that we might be a little under-staffed since we have so many players unable to attend due to provincial team commitments, but this actually turned out to be a good thing. The 10 players that were able attend had to step up and fill the void. Now that I’ve had time to reflect, this is actually exactly what is needed to help build a stronger KVHS program.
Each summer we can send our top players per age group off to compete and train with the provincial team coaches. Meanwhile the remaining players will compete on our club team participating in camps like the one in Sussex, or Waterville, Maine and play some exhibition tournament like BNB Summerfest.
The key is to make sure the top players continue to go out for the provincial teams. We can’t create an environment where they begin to think the club team is a better alternative.
Observations from Sussex Team Camp:
- Sussex and St. Stephen should be the top two teams in the Southern Conference for 2009-2010. St. Stephen might have the better starting five but Sussex might have the edge with a little more depth. Both teams should push Fredericton for the title.
- Steve Pomeroy, St. Stephen’s point guard, is very good. No one in the tournament was able to keep him from getting in the lane any time he wanted to.
- Moncton needs size but Bedard and Roger make for a very tough backcourt.
- Carleton North is rebuilding. Probably won’t have the same success the had this past year where the surprised a lot of teams, KVHS especially.
- KVHS will be better than people think!!!