DNHS hoops training

Kids learn what it takes to be a basketball Warrior

Joely Tynes pushes the ball downcourt defended by Kayla Costello as coach Shauna Ratnour looks on during basketball camp on Wednesday.The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

While this was just a scrimmage between incoming eighth and ninth grade boys at the Del Norte Warrior Basketball Camp, Lopez, the head varsity boys basketball coach, was as animated as he is during games.

“Stay with it,” he shouted in the small gym at Del Norte High School on Wednesday. “Good hustle. Get the board!”

The intensity was shared by the rest of the coaching staff at the camp for boys and girls entering eighth and ninth grades. Younger kids, from fourth to seventh grades, are having their camp at Crescent Elk.

The camp, which began Monday and concludes today, has about 70 kids. It has been held for a number of years during the summer.

Lopez designs the camp like tryouts for the older kids to give participants an idea of what they need to do to make the high school basketball team and help them improve their skills.

“They are able to come out and learn what we do here at the high school and what to expect when they arrive and want to try out for the team,” he said.

Lopez was excited to have a number of former and current Warrior basketball players helping out, as well as current coaches. He said they are people the kids look up to and they are dedicated to assisting the community.

Lopez said a key goal is to help participants become productive members of society — like the players who are coming back to help with the camp.

“It’s great that they have turned out to be good people that have come back and are contributing to the community,” Lopez said.

Those helping out on Wednesday included former players Max Perez and David Standring, and Brandon Kakitsuka, who just graduated from the school.

At the girls camp in the main gym, current Warrior basketball player Shauna Ratnour and Alisha Duncan, a 2006 Del Norte  graduate, worked with a group of girls during a scrimmage, giving pointers and encouragement.

Duncan has coached at the camp each year since graduating and came up from Fresno to help out and teach the next generation of girls what she learned during her time here.

Duncan said that the camp is always something special to be a part of. “I love it,” she said. “It’s great to be able to come back and work with them.”

Duncan said that when she was in school, former players would help at the camps she took part in and this is a way for her to do her part.

Ratnour, who will be a senior this fall, said it’s been interesting to coach instead of being coached, and to pass on to the younger girls what she has learned in her time in the Warrior basketball program.

“It has been a little weird coaching, but it’s been fun,” she said. “I enjoy seeing them learning.”