The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

The fourth edition of the Blue Chips Athletics Camp is underway at the Queen’s College campus, offering elite level training for student athletes interested in advancing their throwing and middle distance running skills.

Blue Chip Head Coach Corrington Maycock is spearheading the effort at the camp, which concludes August 12, and is assisted by several visiting coaches from the United States at the high school and collegiate level.

“It’s all about conditioning, technique, progression charts and showing them how they can move from novices to advanced throwers,” Maycock said. “What we really want is to bring further recognition and awareness to these events and those opportunities that they can create for our student athletes. We just want to attract more interest and get more athletes around the Bahamas to take up the throwing events. Once that interest and enthusiasm is there to work with, we can see what we can do from there, but this is where it starts, getting kids interested.”

He noted the recent success of many junior athletes at the junior level in throwing events, most notably, Serena Brown, who recently completed a record breaking season for the Texas A and M Aggies.

“We have athletes like Serena Brown that the younger ones can look to as an example with her success,” Maycock said. “A lot of the kids may not be aware of their potential in throws because once they hit one sport or one specific event they think that it’s the only avenue they can take, but we have had kids from all over - different sports, different disciplines in athletics and they all make the transition and make it very well. They possess the athleticism they can come over the throws and see where that can take them.”

The camp provides theoretical and practical instruction for the participants with lectures and skill development.

April Smith is the Assistant Coach (Throws) at Fresno State and is participating in the camp for the third time.

“It’s enjoyable because the athletes are fun to work with and they’re so hungry for the knowledge and the opportunity to earn scholarships and to perfect something that they enjoy,” she said, “The kids are great and they truly enjoy learning and doing something different. These kids will bend over backwards for you to follow instructions, they try hard and their work ethic is wonderful and it makes it easy to want to come back.”

Smith has already recruited one thrower from the Blue Chip programme to Fresno State – Tahjnee Thurston – and said she is always on the lookout for more talent.

“Coach Maycock instills a similar philosophy that I have and that makes the transition easier. It’s kind of a breath of fresh air when I come down here because of their work ethic and their approach,” she said, “There’s a large amount of talent here and its undiscovered talent, even by the kids themselves. One thing I have always tried to pride myself on is being able to identify with a lot of the females. Being a taller girl, a thicker girl, I know what they are going through in the aspect of not wanting to look manly, they want to be attractive, they want to be beautiful so I want to show them that strength is not an ugly quality. Some of these kids that were basketball players that didn’t really think athletics was in their frame, a lot of them have been the pleasant surprises. Discovering the talent is what makes this even more fun, seeing that light bulb go off in their heads and seeing them get excited when they realise that they are good at it.”

Her husband, Bob Smith coaches throws at Central High School in Fresno, California and has joined the coaching staff at Blue Chips this year.

“I was telling my wife it usually takes us about two and a half hours to run through the drills and we got through that in about an hour yesterday,” he said. “We had about eight kids that were returners from last year who went through a quick refresher course and they were ready to go. We plan to get a lot more throwing in this year than we did last year and that means that they’re well trained, they’re doing the things that we did last year and that base is established. The talent level this year is above what it was last year and every year we want it keep getting better, especially with so many kids coming back.

“It’s about finding kids that have a love for it, they see the sprinters getting the glory but there is a lot more scholarship opportunity in track and field with throwing at all levels. It’s about finding coaches that are just as involved and have as much passion for it as the athletes do. We’re starting to get a bond with these kids.”

Participants shifted through several stations including the shot put and discuss yesterday on day three of the event.

Shannon Popp, an assistant coach (throws) from Louisiana LaFayette University also joined the camp this year for the first time.

“In the summers I usually work with a very prestigious camp in the states called the Iron Wood Throwing Camp and that one is very similar to what we are doing down here. I love the fact that I can work with so many individual athletes from other countries and spread that knowledge,” she said, “I have never seen kids pick up information, retain it and apply it so fast. These kids are very talented and it’s been a pleasure and a blessing to come down here and work with them.”

This year, Maycock has decided to add a middle and long distance component to the camp.

Coach Christine Engel, also an assistant coach (distance) at Fresno State University, is conducting the inaugural middle and long distance segment of the camp with the view of providing an athletic scholarship to potential Bahamian athletes.

“There’s so much talent in the Bahamas and its great to expose them to different warm-up techniques drills and a variety of things that they can take back to their own teams and schools and implement. We’ve had lectures on nutrition, recovery, college recruiting and many topics. We’ve really tried to pack a lot into these few days with them so that they can learn something each day,” she said, “Their enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge has been great. It’s a great week to do this as the World Champs are going on in London and we require them to become even more of a fan of the sport so they were focusing on those events like the 1500 and the steeplechase and finding some athletes they want to emulate and that is important for goal setting.”

The challenge for the coaches, according to Maycock, is to try and cram it all in one week.

“Not everybody will get a scholarship from the camp, but there are other schools who are interested in giving out scholarships who are not going to be here,” Maycock said. “But we do have the means outside of the camp to help your kids. You have to be developed first before we can talk about talent. We are still looking for the development of the throwers or runners first. The focus of the camp is to get the campers from basic development to peaking to compete. It’s going to be tedious in a way, but beneficial in the long run.

“So we’re hoping this one opens the door for us to put on a stronger camp next year and to help the programme in the future.”