Sharpening skills: the importance of boys lacrosse summer camp

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Attendees of the camp scrimmage at their practice. The camp provides opportunities like this in order for students to improve skills.

Through hour-long scrimmages and all-new abilities, the members of boys lacrosse continue to attack their training over summer.

The boys lacrosse summer camp offers a way for students to sharpen their skills after the school year ends. Every Monday through Wednesday, boys of all grade levels attend the camp to better themselves and the team.

“[Camp] is helping me work on new skills while also improving older skills. I’ve already seen lots of improvements in both myself and the team, [like] how our offense and middle shoot the ball a lot more,” Xander Villacorta, sophomore, said. “It’s definitely getting us ready for game season.”

Unlike game season, the camp is a lot more laid back, according to Villacorta.

In turn, the athletes are able to get better without the stress of games, says Mike Sutton, head coach of boys lacrosse.

“We don’t have a gameplan or a game schedule or anything [so] we are able to focus solely on improvements,” said Sutton. “The kids who come definitely get better because of that.”

Camp not only allows athletes who attend to learn from the coaches, it also encourages them to learn from the more experienced players on the team, says Max Hoff, sophomore.

“Camp teaches me a lot that I wouldn’t have time to learn during the [official] season,” Hoff said. “[In camp] all levels are mixed, so us [freshman and sophomores] are learning a lot from the older kids […] who are more experienced than us and are able to teach.”

Since the camp is all grades, the best way athletes get better is through their relationship with the entire team, according to Sutton.

“It’s all about the relationships. They build the relationships, they get to know each other, they get invested and they get committed,” Sutton said. “[The relationships] lead to learning how your teammates play not just as athletes but as friends. With that, [the team] is able to run in an organized and fun way.”