Whitley Co. teams partner together to present two-day youth sports camp

Last week, several of Whitley County High School’s varsity sports teams joined forces to present a two-day youth camp that included hands-on instruction in six different athletic activities.

The event was a huge success, with around 300 kids ranging in age from preschool to eighth grade showing up to take part.

“At this age, kids should try all of it,” said Matt Rhymer, who is about to enter into his first season as the head coach of the Colonel football program. “We have to share athletes here as a rural county school, so it’s really about being one big community. We don’t want to create any barriers or walls, but I do think that happens a lot in high school sports. Kids get pressured to just play this sport or that sport, but we have to get past that. We want to compete in every sport, and that just takes all of us working together.”

Just a few feet away from where football drills were being conducted last week, the Lady Colonels soccer team were sharing knowledge in that sport. “We’re focusing on a lot of different things,” said incoming junior Autumn Sawyers. “We’re having fun, but we’re also teaching the basics of the game, like dribbling and passing. It’s been exciting to see all of these littles come out.”

Inside the gym, coaches Eric Swords (boys basketball) and Sean Pigman (girls basketball) were busy showing campers some of the basics fundamentals on the court.

“What we’re trying to do here at Whitley is get everybody together,” Swords explained. “We’re all Colonels, and we’re hoping that this camp will help to push that mentality and get kids involved in more sports here. At a young age, the more you can do the better.”

Pigman echoed those sentiments, saying, “It’s awesome to be able to get kids familiar with more than just one sport, and it’s also awesome to have the athletic family that we have here. We’re the type of community and the type of school where we don’t just have one-sport athletes most of the time. We need them to be involved in different things, so we’re really excited about doing this and hopefully this is only the beginning of what will happen in the future.”

Coming off of the school’s first-ever state championship victory in baseball, Coach Jeremy Shope said that he was glad to have the opportunity to come back home to Whitley County last week, and just get out and have some fun with the young campers.

“When I first got here I knew that this place was special,” Shope said. “We had the right administration in place, great facilities that are continually getting upgraded, and we also have a bunch of hungry kids. This is where it all begins, though. At this level is where you can really begin to build that school pride. It’s great to see.”

“I think it is super-important to get all of these kids out here and give them the chance to try something with no strings attached,” said WCHS softball Head Coach Angela Singleton. “You have kids who have never played certain sports before, so they really don’t know what they’re going to like, but if they can attend a camp like this and try out 3-4 different sports, how awesome is that?”

Clearly, the answer to that question was “very awesome,” considering the turnout that all of the Colonel teams saw last week. All of the coaches involved mentioned being encouraged by the enthusiastic response that the youth camp received, and they consider it a positive sign for what the future will hold for athletics at WCHS.

(Photos by LEEANN FRAGOSA)