Estridge, South Putnam gets youth on board with boys’ basketball camps this week

South Putnam head coach Josh Estridge explains what he wanted from a drill during this week’s boys’ basketball camp held at Central Elementary School.

Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT

Though only in the position for little over a month, new South Putnam boys’ basketball head coach Josh Estridge was able to get youth camps organized and moving forward this week, inviting around 50 boys from grades 1-8 to Central Elementary to work on a variety of skills and get acclimated to the new coach’s ideas about the game.

Sessions are broken into two parts with those in 7-8 grade working from 9-10:30 a.m. on Monday, Thursday and Friday and those in grades 1-6 from 12:30-2 p.m from Monday to Friday. A session for high school players was held following the middle school session.

“The attendance has been pretty good,” Estridge said about the numbers attending the camp. “It’s tough when you get hired late to get advertising and things like that out there .

“I’ve had some people around the community help me get the word out and our attendance this week is going to be really, really good. We’re going to work with the kids, meet the kids and get started with them.”

South Putnam assistant coach Steve Smith helps a young camper during the elementary session, which was tailored more to fundamentals and games.

Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT

While middle school players started their camp week early, elementary campers were full of energy Monday afternoon with Estridge, his staff and several South Putnam varsity ball players working with kids to go through warmups, drills and games.

“We will do a lot of shooting and basic fundamentals with the younger group,” Estridge said. “We’ll work on passing and ball handling, fundamentals of defense like the stance, and those types of things.

“There will be a lot of fundamentals but there will definitely be some games so that the kids enjoy the experience. The fundamentals can be fun but at the same time, the little kids want to compete, too.”

Estridge was pleased to see many campers be able to attend despite the short time period to organize the event, adding that getting to meet the younger athletes in the community was important in beginning the process of building up not only the program but the connection from the youngest grades all the way up to the varsity level.

“It’s important so that, when these kids see me in public, we’ve made a connection and can start building that rapport,” Estridge said. “It’s good to build that relationship with the younger groups so as they move up the ladder, they’ll get to see what the standard is for a South Putnam basketball is what the expectations are as they move through the line.

“Getting my face out there, getting to know the kids and getting to know the staff was really important for me.”

The middle school session at the South Putnam youth basketball camp was geared mored toward getting the players used to the standards they would be seeing at the high school level through.

Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT

While it would take time for those connections to pay off in the long run, Estridge said the biggest thing he wanted each camper to take away was that it was okay to enjoy playing basketball at South Putnam.

“We want the kids to have fun and be excited about South Putnam basketball,” Estridge said. “To me, that’s the bottom line.

“If they get a thing or two out of the camp which they can do at home on their own, that’s great, but we really want them to be excited about being a South Putnam Eagle.”