There only may be a week before the summer officially begins, but basketball teams are using the hot months of the year to get ready for the cold, long days of the winter season.
Northern New Mexico College’s women’s basketball program on June 7-8 played host to its first-ever team camp with 12 high school programs partaking in the opportunity to work on their games for hoped success in the 2018-19 season.
Of those squads, McCurdy Charter School and Dulce High School participated in the field with both teams getting to the final of their respective bracket.
McCurdy battled Capital High School’s junior varsity in the Bronze Bracket C Division and in a game that featured a lot of scrap by both teams June 8.
The Bobcats fell 24-22 in the final game against the Santa Fe squad, but not before impressing their head coach over the two days, that included a semifinal win over Mesa Vista.
“We are playing some younger girls – we’re playing a seventh-grader because we were limited on the number of girls who could play in this tournament, but we are having fun,” McCurdy coach Ron Sanchez said. “I’ve expected some of the girls to step up and they have. This year (the returners) are expected to have a huge role for us. We are expecting to score in the 50s every game. That’s our goal.
“The biggest improvement I have seen is on our defense. We need to work on our man offense. We have some new faces so, that’s what summer is for. They are playing hard and that’s all I can ask of them. We only had six girls (June 8).”
Dulce was able to roll to a big win in the Silver Bracket B Division, rolling past Class 6A Atrisco Heritage’s second team, 37-17, in the final.
Santa Fe Indian School captured the Gold Bracket A Division crown by nipping Robertson, 37-35 to wrap a solid two days of action that tipped off June 7.
The Eagles’ coaching staff is pleased with the results of the first-time camp offering.
“We had schools as big as Atrisco and smaller schools like Mesa Vista, Peñasco and Mora,” Eagles’ associate head coach Mandy Montoya said. “It went great. (Head coach Tony Gallegos) and I had talked about putting on one in the past, but there were always a lot of other teams camps and tournaments. With the extravaganza the (New Mexico Activities Association) usually puts on, they didn’t have it this weekend. We jumped at the chance to put it on this weekend. For our first, the turnout was great. We get a lot of local schools, but it was good to get teams like Atrisco and Robertson.
“It was a good chance for us to see the talent.”
The goal is for the camp to bring in more of the bigger northern schools like Española Valley High School, Los Alamos High School and Santa Fe-area heavyweights.
The Eagles will host a skills camp at the end of the month and a girls 3-on-3 tournament in August before the school year begins.