Local basketball camp sets record
By George Starks

ARCANUM - Arcanum girls’ basketball has grown by leaps and bounds in the past three years.

With Rachel Fearon at the helm and her sister, Abby Moore serving as the junior varsity coach, the Arcanum Lady Trojans were second in the Cross County Conference last season.

With that success come the spoils that go with it.

Recently, Fearon held her annual basketball camp at Arcanum for kids in grades two through eight.

“It was the biggest camp we’ve had,” said Fearon “We had 75 campers this year with the biggest boost coming from the fifth and sixth grade classes. It went very smooth as usual and I was very pleased. I had 15 of my high school kids there helping me out. ”

Fearon gave her thoughts as to why the camp has grown.

“I think because of the success of the past season has a lot to do with it. I think the word is getting out that kids are enjoying coming to the camps,” Fearon pointed out. “When the word is out, it just kind of snowballs and we get more and more kids every year.”

With school just recently ending, Fearon admits the campers attending is up against one big blocker.

“A lot of families like to take early vacations,” said Fearon. “I’m not surprised about the high numbers at the fifth and sixth grade levels because the seventh and eighth graders practice throughout the summer. So this factors in with the numbers as well.”

With the increase in numbers, Fearon was quick to point out another factor.

“I think we had right at 50 last year at the camp,” said Fearon. “The camp is open to all schools, not just Arcanum so we had several coming in from outside the school district. We never advertised it but it was open to area schools so this is something we will look at in the future.”

With 75 this year, one can only guess as to how many will attend in 2015.

“I think this says a lot about our program here,” said Fearon. “It reflects to the hard work our high school kids put in and the fact they made a statement this year. It’s something they should be proud of and it helps keep the interest up at the lower grades. When you are successful at the high school level, you have younger kids that look up to you, so they want to come out. It just shows tremendous growth at the high school level and what these girls have achieved.”

With the younger kids going to the camp to learn, the parents take notice as well.

“I had a lot of comments from the parents about how good my high school kids are as leaders,” said Fearon. “They talked about how much their girls enjoyed coming to camp every day and having the high school girls as their coaches. They thought that was pretty cool.”

With so many kids in camp and the majority being Arcanum students, the basketball program is growing stronger at Arcanum.

“I’m hoping these girls that are coming to camp are telling themselves they want to be one of the high school coaches someday,” Fearon stated. “The program here is prospering and it’s important to get these kids started in your program at a young age.”