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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The Oak Mountain Eagles spent some time growing the game of basketball with girls from around the area with the OMHS Girls Youth Basketball Camp on July 8 and 9 at Oak Mountain High School.

New head varsity girls basketball coach Aimee Harris was pleased with what she saw and is excited for the future of the camp.

“My team did such a great job of bringing so much energy and engaging with the kids,” Harris said. “We just had a great two days of fun and basketball.”

The camp came together rather quickly after Harris was promoted into the role in May, which meant she and her staff only planned out two days of activities.

Despite the short notice, 22 kids still attended the camp and enjoyed themselves even in a shortened format. Harris said that encouraged her to potentially grow the camp into a three or four day event or even add a Christmas break camp if the community demands it.

“It was a great time just to connect with kids, and I’m excited even for next year,” Harris said. “I feel like we can recruit more and even get more of the community involved.”

Throughout the two days, Harris, her assistant coaches Brandon Funk and Sara O’Dell and the Oak Mountain girls basketball players taught campers how to shoot properly and handle the ball well.

They also kept things fun with games like King of the Court, dribble tag, basketball Pac-Man and a competition for the best team cheer along with 3-on-3 and 5-on-5 competitions.

Harris is grateful for coaches Funk and O’Dell for helping make the camp run smoothly. She also is proud of her players for their work with all of the kids.

The players interacted with the kids during the camp and kept them excited about all the activities while also building relationships with them. Harris saw how the kids gravitated towards her players and enjoyed seeing those bonds form.

“All our players that were able to help, they just did such a great job of bringing energy and connecting with the kids,” Harris said. “You could tell with all the little kids, they just loved the high school players, so that was a lot of fun to watch.”

Harris believes that cooperating with her coaches and players to make the camp a success is one of beauties of the experience because it brings them closer together.

“I feel like that brings a lot of chemistry, just even for us working together and putting on this camp,” Harris said.

In the end, Harris hopes that an experience like this helps excite kids for the game of basketball and keep them engaged with the program, whether that be by playing in the Oak Mountain rec league, attending future camps or coming out to varsity games.

She believes those connections are crucial to not only build up the game of basketball but grow the brand of their program but as well.

“It helps us to connect with the younger kids in the community,” Harris said. “We want to continue to do things like that in small ways. If it’s having our summer camp, maybe having a Christmas camp in the future, it’s just good. We want Oak Mountain basketball to be known as something that the younger kids know and the community knows.”