Westwood boys basketball camp

For grade school students, summertime is a chance for them to sleep in, go to the beach, or play a round of golf. Usually, school is the last thing on their minds.

But for a group of students at Westwood High School, they are back in the classroom- well, sort of.

Monday was the start of week number two of the annual Patriots Basketball Summer Camp. The camp is led by Ryan Reichel, the head coach of the boys varsity basketball team.

The camp runs every Monday for four straight weeks, teaching kids at the elementary level and all the way up to the varsity level. During the varsity level portion of the camp, Coach Reichel was stressing three things to every player- ball handling, shooting, and foot work.

“You’ve got to be able to have proper footwork in order to try and score, pass, or dribble,” said Reichel. “Offensively we need to become a stronger district in order for our basketball program to succeed,” Reichel went on to say.

“All the fundamentals help with all of the more advanced stuff,” said Luke Gray, a Patriots basketball player. “You’ve got to start with the easier stuff so you can go harder and that is how you get better,” added Gray.

“Camp is going pretty well,” said Luke Woods, who will be a senior this fall at Westwood. “We need to get better. We didn’t have have a very good season last year, so we need to put in the work to have a good season this year.”

The Patriots Basketball Summer Camp runs thru June 24. Coach Reichel and his high school players are off to Houghton this weekend for a basketball camp at Michigan Tech.