After a successful first season as co-head coaches of the Alpena High varsity girls basketball team, Kelley Miko and Steve McCourt are anxious to see that success continue this winter.

To make that happen though, both coaches know the importance of offseason workouts and the Alpena program hit the ground running this week during a four-day basketball camp.

The camp, which was split into two groups, one for those in grades 3-8 and one for high schoolers, puts a focus on fundamentals and also reinforces concepts the players have already learned.

“We try to hold it right at the start of summer every year because we really want to stress how important the offseason is,” McCourt said. “The kids got one day off of school and boom, we’re working hard, hard, hard and trying to establish a good summer work ethic for all our kids.”

“It’s vital to our success throughout the offseason, throughout the summer to make sure we’re ready for the next year.”

Under McCourt and Miko, the Alpena varsity team went 13-8 last season, but having a camp that brings the varsity, JV and freshmen teams together ultimately benefits all three squads and helps the coaching staffs get on the same page. On Thursday, the high school camp of about 30 kids work together on some basic drills before being broken up into groups to work with a coach.

McCourt, who worked with Alpena’s freshmen team was immediately impressed by some of the basketball knowledge his players displayed during an offensive drill.

“I brought up an offensive set, an inbounds play and they already knew it. So we feel like in year two we’re going to have more consistency and our coaching staff will all be on the same play, so that will be a huge benefit,” McCourt said.

Miko worked with the varsity group and put players through their paces in positioning drills, footwork drills and some shooting competitions before working on some offensive sets. The varsity players got the added benefit of teaching skills to the morning campers during the week which Miko said helps them reinforce their knowledge of the game.

“Not only are they helping the younger girls, they’re helping themselves because once you have to teach it, you kind of get a better feel for what you need to tweak in your own game,” Miko said.

The camp finished on Thursday, but many of those participating will get a few extra days of basketball as Alpena Community College is hosting a team camp tomorrow and Saturday. The camp brings together various varsity and JV teams from around northern Michigan for games. Alpena will have three teams participating, one each at the freshman, JV and varsity levels and Onaway, Hillman and Alcona are among those teams taking part.

Basketball season is still more than five months away, but with the lessons learned this week and a continued commitment by the players toward getting better, McCourt thinks the summer is off to a good start.

“We’re one week in, but we’ve logged a lot of hours already so we feel like we’re off to a good start for the summer,” McCourt said.

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.