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The Helena softball family turned out in force to inspire the next generation of players at the Helena Softball Camp. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HELENA – Cloudy skies did nothing to dampen the spirits of the dozens of young softball players as they learned from the Helena Huskies at the Helena Softball camp on July 22 and 23 at the Helena High School softball field.

“I was terrifically pleased with the amount of participation that we had,” Helena varsity softball coach Mark Sanders said. “We had about 55 kids from first through sixth grade. It was just a great turnout, had a little bit of rain that we dodged but it made it a little cooler for us.”

During the two-day event, campers were busy rotating through multiple stations as they learned plenty of softball skills that they could take and use in their own game, as taught by one of the top teams in Class 6A.

On day one, the kids learned the basics of defense and throwing at the defensive station, hit ball at the offensive station, worked on their bunting skills and got to field balls as well.

They then came back on Tuesday and had four more stations to rotate through: a simulated game, an offensive station, base running and an introduction to pitching, the latter of which was run by current Mississippi College pitcher and Helena alum Cameron Bailey.

Bailey was just one of the many Huskies players who answered the call from Sanders to help with the camp. She was joined by former Huskies Lexi Bullock, now an outfielder at Auburn-Montgomery, and Alex Erwin, a centerfielder at Marion Military Institute, as well as about 80 percent of Helena’s current varsity and middle school softball players.

Those players, who either played under Sanders during his decades at Helena Middle School or on varsity during his first season as head coach in 2024, came out in such force that they nearly matched the number of campers, ensuring lots of one-on-one instruction.

Sanders knows how much the campers love to meet and learn from the players, and he believes they were also able to teach the kids well alongside the coaches and players with college experience.

“I think one of the things they’re most excited about or most look forward to is getting to interact with the middle school and high school players, so having that one-on-one from kids who have been doing this a long time, have had a lot of lessons, been very successful,” Sanders said. “Then we had three former players that played here that are all currently college players. They were here helping, and then we had all of our coaching staff who’s had some college athletic experience. They were here too. So, the quality of instruction was very good.”

He believes their eagerness to sign up and help is a sign of how much they want to grow the sport within the Helena area and pour into the lives of the young kids who may take their places on the Huskies one day.

“I just think it just shows the dedication that the players have to the sport and to our community,” Sanders said. “These kids were excited to be here. They came early, they stayed late and they did a really good job of being engaged with the campers. And I just think it says a lot about their love for the game and their love for the community.”

The players also have a deep love for camp because for some of them, this is where their love of softball stemmed from. Sanders said that multiple players have told him that softball camp was when that desire to play for the Huskies started.

Now, those players get to share that experience with the next generation in hopes that they start having a similar love.

“We’ve had kids who graduated up here and graduated from the high school that went through a camp that we had years ago at the middle school and they later told me that going to that camp kind of really peak their interest in the sport and that’s when they kind of knew, ‘Hey, that’s what I want to do all the way through high school,’” Sanders said.

Overall, that is the goal of the camp in Sanders’ eyes: grow the game of softball by exposing more people to it and showing them that they too can play at a high level in the future.

“I think just grabbing their interest and letting them see it on a bigger stage, a bigger level and get to interact with these high school girls, it just really helps set that goal and that bar of, ‘Hey, this is what I really want to do,’” Sanders said.

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