Rogers coaches stick together, draw close to 300 for basketball camps
Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2008
ROGERS - Rogers basketball coach Marty Barnes knows all about winning, so it stands to reason he also knows a winning idea when he hears it.
That's why he and Rogers Heritage basketball coach Tom Olsen decided it'd be best to team up rather than go it alone. Both head coaches, their staffs and their players instructed close to 300 campers this summer during the Hoop-in It Up Basketball Camp at Rogers High School.
The first session (June 9-13 ) had 130 campers in grades K through 8. The second, four-day session concluded Friday with 160 campers - K through 5 for Fundamental Camp in the morning and 4 through 8 for Accelerated Camp in the afternoon.
"To keep it co-operative I just think there are too many benefits," Barnes says. "If coach Olsen was to have his camp and I was to have a camp I think we'd both suffer."
Ambiguity was the rule. Each camper received a white basketball with a Mountaineer logo on one side and a War Eagle on the other.
Camp T-shirts that were given don't have mention of either school mascot, only Rogers Hoop-in It Up Camp printed on the front.
"In this type of community, you can't guarantee that a kid in the second or fourth grade is not going to move within the city later on," Barnes says. "When I lived in Russellville I moved five times in 30 years. Plus I like the idea that our players are working together and our coaches are working together. It's going to be a bad enough rivalry having to play one another."
Next summer both coaches say they'll operate under the same system, only one camp session will be at Heritage High and the other will be at Rogers High.
"I think we're better off staying together," says Olsen, whose sons Crist (13 ), Dane (10 ) and Ty (8 ) were among last week's campers. "I don't want to make a kid have to choose between my camp or coach Barnes' camp. "
Both coaches helped lead Rogers to a level of sustained success unlike any in school history. In four years under Barnes the Mountaineers have a rec ord of 78-34 with four state tournament wins and the first conference championship in a half century.
Olsen, a RHS alum, was an assistant at Rogers the last eight seasons before being hired at Heritage, due to open this fall.
The two coaches recalled last week their first summer camp together, put together quickly after Barnes was hired in May of 2004. There were 65 boys that first week.
Last year the number grew to 238. Campers this year were the first to have use of an auxiliary gym, which both coaches agree has been extremely helpful.
"I'd hope (the winning ) has something to do with the numbers and the increase we've had each year," Barnes says. "And I think the kids come to camp and they enjoy it. You have to enjoy it or you don't come back. We're hoping we've given them some basic fundamentals that can help them and then later on help us."
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