Truman basketball plans for summer camps

The basketball teams and coaches will host camps for younger players this summer as the program has done in the past.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will host weeklong camps for elementary and middle schoolers in June and an elite camp for college-bound high school players. Bulldog players and coaches will teach at the camps, which cost anywhere from $80 for the single-day women’s elite camp to $285 for the week long residential camp for primary school girls.

Assistant women’s basketball coach Theo Dean said the women’s camps have been going on since Amy Eagan became head coach of the program in 2013. He said the camps are both a recruitment tool for the team and a community outreach program.

“In the area that we’re in, kids aren’t exposed to a lot of travel ball,” Dean said. “So it’s really, for a lot of our youth campers, the most basketball that they get in the summertime.”

Dean said the team gives kids who might not become college basketball players the opportunity to play on a college floor and train with college coaches. He also said the coaching and training duties are split fairly evenly between the coaches and the current Truman players, and the younger kids often enjoy meeting the Bulldog players.

The high school elite camps also help recruitment for the team, and Dean said of the five freshmen who began their careers with the team this season, four attended Truman elite camps in the past.

Players at all levels will receive T-shirts for participating. The early registration deadline for the women’s camps is May 21.