Princeton Skills Camp

Coach Banghart and the 2011 Ivy League Champs!

Superstar!

This past weekend GraceAnne attended the Princeton Skills Camp. Unfortunately she had to miss the Connecticut Breeze Tournament to do so but her Game7 team did very well winning all four games for the sweep. This is a camp we had signed up for when it was first announced in February, we had blacked out the dates prior to AAU sign-up or scheduling. Still, it was a tough decision to miss the tournament but Grace did not want to miss this camp.

GraceAnne had a really good time! She met some very nice kids, got tremendous instruction form coaches Courtney Banghart, Melanie Halker Moore, Milena Flores and Megan Griffith and played a lot of basketball.

Got off to a hectic start as Remi and I picked GraceAnne up from school at 3:00 and drove her directly down to Princeton. Hit traffic but made it there for her to begin camp on time... just barely! We decided to relax and stay around to watch for an hour or two. I'm very glad we did!

Melanie and Milena

The Princeton coaching staff is pretty amazing. Not only do they have tremendous basketball expertise and
experience but also an infectious enthusiasm for the game, an ability to break-down, simplify and teach as well as a very open, welcoming, inclusive philosophy. You could tell that every girl participating was very happy to be there and felt like they were part of something special. So many friendly faces!

When Remi and I reached Jadwin Gym GraceAnne was already working with Coach Moore and some of the older post players. They were working on their footwork which is something Grace should always concentrate on. Later they split into slightly larger groups by age and ability and Megan Griffith had them do some shooting and ball handling. Milena Flores then showed them how to do form shooting from "the bottom up". Lastly Courtney Banghart had them run a three man weave.

Courtney at Dartmouth!

We then headed back to Glen Cove feeling confident we were leaving Grace in very good hands! We weren't half-way home by the time she called us very excited about her first day of camp!

When we returned Sunday to pick Grace up the girls were playing three on threes and having a great time working on their skills. I could hardly believe it was already time to say goodbye! Seemed like the weekend went by all too fast.

Coach Banghart and Coach Moore had lots of nice things to say about GraceAnne and how hard she worked... in spite of her wearing Hofstra shorts. The Tigers will be playing in Hempstead this coming season and we are already looking forward to it! It was wonderful to see Megan and get a chance to speak to her for a little bit as well. She was working extremely hard with the campers and definitely kept "Woody" busy. Megan is fantastic and seems to have a boundless supply of energy and enthusiasm!

A determined Megan!

Oh! And, Grace would KILL me if I didn't mention she won the Hot Shot Competition! Got a Princeton water bottle for her efforts and says she'll put it up on the top shelf with all of her other trophies ;o)

Just two weeks 'til Princeton Overnight Camp!