The pictures from the week have been posted!  Check out all the fun we had!  You should be able to download any pictures you want.  If not, just contact me and I will email you the picture you want.

Click here for pictures!

At the end of the week, we like to recognize some campers who really stood out all week.  Here are the weekly award winners:

• Most Improved Player – Chauncy and Jayden
• High Five Award – Cameron and Joaquin
• Great Attitude Award – Amber and Madison
• Most Attentive Award – Lilly and Cameron
• Weekly Hustle Award – Elyana, Kassandra, and Karl
• Weekly Sportsmanship Award – Brooke, Cassidy, and Aiden

The big award we give out is the Mark Osowski Award.  Each year, it is awarded to a boy and a girl who are the kind of player Mark loved to coach.  These are kids who have great attitudes, are reliable, work hard, and are great teammates.  We were proud to give the award to two amazing kids this week – Tesfanesh and Donovan!

Great job all week, everyone!

What a great day to wrap up an amazing week!  I think we are all a little tired after working so hard all week, but just one last day.

Today we reviewed some of the activities we did throughout the week.  We practiced our ball handling skills by doing relay races and playing dribble tag.  We also played some shooting games.

As parents started to arrive, the kids were doing their plyometric activities.  Then, they tried to win the X-lay-up drill by scoring 40 lay-ups in 6 minutes.  Unfortunately, they were just one short, which meant all the campers had to do 10 pushups!  (If they had one, their counselors would have been the ones dropping for 10!)

Congratulations to our Daily Hustle Award winners – Sophia, Xavier, and Keegan!

Also, congratulations to our Daily Sportsmanship winners – Max and Will!

Wow!  This week is flying by!  Thankfully, it was a little bit cooler in the gym today!  We started out the morning with a dynamic stretch and our favorite plymetrics activities, including jump ropes, tennis balls, crazy balls, and shooting straps.  At the end of the week, each camper is going to get a jump rope to take home with them so they can keep working on the plyometric activities.

We had another great guest speaker today – Coach Eric Dawley, who coaches the Oakmont Boys’ basketball team.  He worked with the kids on passing and being an offensive threat.  He talked a lot about the importance of teamwork and communication.

Since it was another hot and steamy day, we watched another shooting film in the afternoon, which had the kids giggling at the funny coach on the video.  We also took a popscicle break!

Other activities on Thursday included a variety of shooting games, scrimmages, and the Mikan drill.  In the drills, kids worked on using their strong hand and weak hand, which is always a challenge!

Congratulations to our knockout winners from Thursday – Kassandra, Sofia, Cassidy, Emilio, Chauncey, Aiden, Jayden, Aiden, Soleil, and Daniel!

Also, congratulations to our Daily Hustle Award winners – Hannah and Andrew!

And, congratulations to our Daily Sportsmanship winners – Maeve and Syris!

It was another hot one on Wednesday, but oh man, these kids are troopers!  They are working hard and cheering in each other on, even if they are melting into puddles!

Today we had a special guest speaker – Coach Karen Tessmer from Worcester State.  She brought along a couple of her players to demonstrate some shooting drills for the kids.  She encouraged the kids to work hard, especially in practice.  After the lecture and demonstration, kids worked on some of the drills she showed them.  They worked on spot shooting, screens, transitions, and did 3-on-3 games.

Wednesday was also the camp cookout!  We cooked up almost 150 hot dogs to serve the kids for lunch!  Luckily, there were even some left to pass along to the Leominster High School cleaning crew, who have been taking great care of us all week!

Congratulations to our knockout winners for Wednesday – Angelina, Hunter, Keegan, Rupert, Andrew, Lilly, Soren, Alex, and Brooke!

Also, congratulations to our Daily Hustle Award winners – David and Aiden!

And, congratulations to our Daily Sportsmanship Award winners – Kali and Jayna!

Tuesday was a hot one, but all the kids worked hard!  We worked on plyometrics this morning – jump ropes, tennis balls, crazy balls, ball handling, passing, line jumps, and the ladder.  There was a lot of sweat as kids worked on improving their agility and reflexes.

We also worked on V-cuts, moving shots, and free throws today – all important for good offensive skills.  In the afternoon, when it was really hot, we gathered in the cool hallway to watch a couple films.  The first was a short memorial film on Mark Osowski that was put together by the Cleveland Cavaliers’ former media director after he died.  The second film was on good shooting form.

Congratulations to our knockout winners from Tuesday – Dyrese, Sophia, Brielle, Maeve, Daniel, Maddie, Jaiden, Andrew, Richard, and Noah!

Also, congratulations to our Daily Hustle Award winners – Daniel and Rupert!

And, congratulations to our Daily Sportsmanship Award winners – Lilly and William!

Congratulations to our Knockout game winners on Monday – Lily, Elyanna, Chauncy, Richard, Dyrese, Brielle, Joaquin, Soleio, Jonah, and Rocco!

Also, congratulations to our Daily Hustle Award Winners – Dyrese and Jaiden!

And, congratulations to our Daily Sportsmanship Award Winners – Cassidy and Lyla!

We are so excited for camp this year!  We have 75 great kids who are working hard today!  It is looking like a great (and hot!) week!

We are starting camp off today with one of our favorite guest speakers – Coach Dellasanta working on ball handling.  Coach always gives a lively talk!  Each kid is up and practicing everything he teaches them: cross overs, behind the back, left hand, right hand…lots of practice!

This afternoon, Lauren Osowski is talking to the campers about the history of the camp her uncle started 21 years ago.  Then, later this afternoon, campers will be working on passes and shooting.  We will end the day with dribble relay races to reinforce the ball handling skills they learned this morning.

We will end the day, as we always do, with Sportsmanship and Hustle Awards and popsicles (which are a perfect end to a hot day!).