Lady Tigers b-ball players attend national-level camp

The national basketball training camp allowed five members of the Lady Tigers basketball team, shown here with the assistant coach Jack Dooley, improve their skills as they set their sights on next year's season.

Looking at refining their skills on the court, five players from Mountain Home High Scool's Lady Tigers basketball team participated in a national training camp earlier this month.

Juniors Jacey Carr and Anna Pedroza, sophomore Kylie Meadows, and freshmen Alexis Hiler and Adrie Blanksma were five of the 45 high school campers that took part in the two-day "Attack and Counter" post player program, held at the Suwanee Sports Academy in Marietta, Ga.

The camp was taught by Coach Don Kelbick, who has 35 years of coaching experience. During this time, he's worked with a number of notable professional players, including Rick Smits and Raja Bell.

Lady Tigers assistant coach Jack Dooley, was very impressed with what he saw in terms of the performance demonstrated by the Mountain Home participants.

"Our girls have been working especially hard on narrowing the talent gap between our team and our district foes," Dooley said. "In the last month, our girls have put in countless hours in the gym to further develop their game."

With optimism and offseason commitment at an all-time high, the 2,000 mile trip to a basketball clinic is just one of the examples of how the girls in the high school program are going the extra mile to improve their game, the assistant coach said.

"The thing that I find myself saying to the girls is that they need to push themselves to be uncomfortable -- to break into the unknown and discover how talented they really are," Dooley said.

"I'm very proud of these girls for being brave enough to step well outside of their comfort level to try and get better," he added.

The Mountain Home girls basketball program offers several free off-season opportunities for girls in fifth to 11th grade. The Mountain Home Shooting Club, Tiger Intensity Training and Mountain Home Post Clinic give girls in the local area a chance to improve on basketball fundaments.