by Kim Hilsenbeck
Again this year, the Hays Free Press will capture the fun of summer camps around the area – everything from art to basketball and from fitness to finance. Each week throughout the summer, we’ll feature a local kids’ camp. If you know of a local camp that you think would be a good one to profile, tell us about it. Send an email to [email protected] with the subject Summer Camp Spotlight.
This four-day featured camp is the Lady Rebels Basketball. Led by Hays High School girls head basketball coach Danny Preuss, this is the place to be for young girls who want to learn how to play basketball, or improve their existing skills.
The week-long camp, which runs from 8 a.m. – noon, teaches girls in third through eight grade all the fundamentals of the game. During the camp, the girls have scrimmages and engage in daily competitions.
Preuss took time out of his morning to talk with the Hays Free Press about his goals for the campers.
“First of all, it’s all about having fun. We want the girls to think basketball is fun,” he said. “We try to teach them the fundamentals a little bit, you know, the basics – ball handling, dribbling, shooting baskets. We try to teach them some team philosophy stuff. I think our overall goal is we want them to have a positive experience with basketball.”
Preuss no doubt has experience with sport. With the exception of a six-year stint at Lehman High School, Preuss has been a coach at Hays High. He’s been doing the camp just as long.
“I’ve been doing a camp for about 23 years now. I started at Hays in 1990 and have been working the camp since then,” he said.
Several of his former campers went on to be on his Lady Rebel teams over the years.
“I just talked to my assistant coach Buisinger, about, hey, isn’t it crazy that we sit here and look at all these little girls and some day they grow up and they’re starting for us on our basketball team?” he said.
Two of his former students, Rachel Calabrese and Kamryn Kent, who graduated last week, work as camp leaders. They can’t work until they graduate, according to UIL rules.
Both said they attended the camp as young girls.
What’s it like to come back?
“I always had really fond memories of just being here all day and being so tired, and now I can be here and actually see what it was like and see the girls have fun like I did,” Rachel said.
“It’s nerve wracking,” Kamryn said, “Like, I want to meet the standards; whenever I went (here) I thought it was the coolest thing ever and I want to make sure they feel the same.”
Both assistants said they think the girls are having a blast.
Looking around the gym and listening to the happy yelps and squeals of young girls, it seems the coaches are right.
