Focus and ball handling key in Play 2 Wynn

Published 11:38 am Wednesday, June 3, 2015

“It’s over! It’s over!” one group of kids yelled after they won the final game of seven-up to win the overall game.

The first groups of kids were up three games to none in a best-of-seven game series of seven-up, but the second group came roaring back to tie the series at three games apiece.

Seven-up is a series of mini-games incorporating skills such as bank sots and free throws learned during the two-day camp.

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Coach Donna Brown-Wynn brought the kids in after the series was tied and told them last game wins it all. The smile on the faces of the campers seemed to change the entire aspect of the series.

The first group that blew the 3-0 lead won the final game of seven-up and a loud roar was let out in unison after the final game was finished.

“That’s what I love about sports. Anything can happen when you have composure,” Brown-Wynn said to her campers after the final game.

The second day of the “Play 2 Wynn” camp was centered on keeping your focus and improving passing and ball-handling skills. The campers participated in “figure-eight” passing drills, layup drills, defensive drills, dribbling with your off-hand, finishing at the basket with your off-hand, and much more.

The second day of camp seemed a lot more focused, but at the same time a lot more fun for the coaches and participating campers.

“It was more fun because they like more movement,” Brown-Wynn said.

When the second team came back from a 0-3 deficit in seven-up, that was the bright spot of the day for Brown-Wynn as her campers showed a lot of toughness and fight to come back.

“When you fight back like that, that’s big time for a kid to do that,” Brown-Wynn said. “I could see their eyes light up and I could see their determination, they got back in it and they can move from there.”

Brown-Wynn added that she saw great improvement in passing from her campers in the second day, but improvements in ball handling need to be made going forward.

The biggest takeaway of the day from the coaches was to improve dribbling with their off hand. Being able to control the basketball with both hands is key in the sport and developing that skill can be hard for younger players at times. Brown-Wynn gave her campers a homework assignment to dribble with their off hand 100 times before coming to camp the next day.

The improvements in the campers and the smiles and attitude that kids brought on day two brought great joy to the coaching staff of “Play 2 Wynn.”