Coaches from Corning, Waverly, and Athens instruct at first camp “over the border”
by Bill Collmer, Hornell Sun Senior Sports Writer
ATHENS-The popular Shoot the Lights out Basketball Camp made its first ever trip to Athens Pennsylvania last week. The Camp took place from Monday August 3, to Friday August 7, with 73 kids of all ages attending the first camp at Athens. After celebrating their 20th Anniversary of hosting a camp at Avoca Central School in mid-July, Coach Bill Hopkins and his staff crossed over the border to host a camp at Athens High School.
Here are our Award Winners for the week from the Athens Camp, the Steph Curry shooting award went to Ian Johnston from Waverly. The Caitlin Clark shooting award went Taylor Aquilio from Towanda.
The campers of the week were Ava Rhodes and Aidan Briggs who are both from Athens.
Coaches Awards went to Ace Johnston (Waverly), Lexi Mayo (Athens), Kensley Gabriel (Athens), Ashlynn Earle (Wyalusing), Trenton Ingrassia (Athens), Noah Winquist (Corning) and Penelope Medcalf (Athens)
The Most Improved campers of the week were Saraya Anthony (Athens), Haylee Bickhart (Athens) & Madison Hotaling (Towanda)
“We had a great week, the kids worked hard every day, we had 70 plus kids every day except for Friday when we had 68, a few kids couldn’t come the last day,” Camp director Bill Hopkins said.
Hopkins was inducted into the Section Four Hall of Fame in 2023, he retired from Coaching in 2019 after 45 years at Corning East, Elmira Notre Dame and Thomas Edison. He is currently an Assistant varsity Coach at Corning.
Other instructors at the Athens Camp were Kevin Doughterty who runs the Northern Tier Force AAU program in Athens, Athens Boys Basketball Legend and All-Time leading Scorer Dan Lane, his son Aaron Lane who is the girls modified coach at Athens. Athens Assistant Coaches Matt Wayman and Karlee Barlow also worked the camp as instructors.
New Waverly Girls Varsity Coach Toby Foster spoke to the campers about the dedication it takes to become College Basketball player. Foster was a star player at Candor in the late 1990’s, playing varsity all four years, he finished his high school career with 2,231 career points and 1,182 career rebounds he held 11 school records when he graduated from Candor. He went on to play Division One Basketball at Canisius in Buffalo where he became their All-Time leader in three pointers made with 189.
The Shoot the Lights out Basketball Camp will return to Avoca Central School July 12-16, 2027, for their 21st year. For more information or to Register for the camp please Call Bill Hopkins at 607-738-5307 or e-mail shootlightsout@gmail.com
