AYER – On Thursday afternoon, the Ayer-Shirley Regional boys’ and girls’ basketball programs put the finishing touches on the first Panthers Basketball Camp at Ayer-Shirley Regional High School and Page Hilltop Elementary School.
The four-day camp, open to both boys and girls in grades two through nine, ran from Monday, August 12 through Thursday, August 15 with each session beginning at 9am and lasting until 1pm.
The camp saw close to 60 youngsters from the Ayer and Shirley community but also neighboring towns like Groton, Lunenburg, Acton, Maynard, Concord and Bedford. Panthers varsity head coaches Rick Kilpatrick (boys) and Corey Phillips (girls) ran the camp.
“We wanted to do a camp that spans a wide age to welcome the youth programs and get to know these kids and give them an opportunity to get better at basketball,” said Phillips from inside the Ayer-Shirley Regional gym Thursday afternoon. “I believe the one the parks and recreation department does earlier in the summer caps it at around 40 kids so we wanted to hold this and open to everyone.”
The camp was originally slated for earlier this summer back in June but both Kilpatrick and Phillips made the decision to postpone the camp to a later date in the summer, electing to hold the camp in August shortly before students return to school.
Assisting Phillips and Kilpatrick in running the camp were varsity players from both the girls’ and boys’ programs.
“The camp has been great, there’s a lot of benefits to something like this. We get the chance to promote the program to the community,” said Kilpatrick during a break from the action on the court on Thursday. “For Corey and me, it’s been great to be able to communicate and get to know the younger kids that are here.”
According to Kilpatrick, the coaches do their best to teach the fundamentals of the game while at the same time having fun and making the experience enjoyable, especially for the younger campers in attendance.
“We ended up with a decent number and we’re hoping that now that everyone knows it’s here that our numbers will continue to grow. We have access to the high school gym and also the Page Hilltop Elementary School gym across the parking lot so it’s great,” said Phillips. “It’s been an enjoyable experience. We have varsity players from both programs here and they’ve been a big help.”
After coaching the boys’ basketball team at Acton-Boxborough for 21 years, Kilpatrick took over the reins at Ayer-Shirley in 2019. Kilpatrick still works as a teacher in the Acton Boxborough school system. As for Phillips, he will be entering his fourth season at the helm of the Lady Panthers. Phillips, who is a teacher at Sky View Middle School in Leominster, previously coached the varsity girls at Hopedale High School.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” said Kilpatrick. “The kids have been great to work with and hopefully we can continue to grow this camp over the next few years.”
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