Interested students at Chief Kahkewistahaw Community School made major strides in the game of basketball last month thanks to a clinic run by a few Davidson School students and one graduate.
Grade 12 students Kim Baldwin and Matthias McCreary joined up with Grade 11s Jill Rettger and Grade 10 kids Tina Stone, Cheyanne Nordmarken, Huck Rettger, Sydney Booker and Gabe Ebenal along with 2012 Davidson School graduate Sydney Willner to run the Nov. 29 and 30 basketball clinic at Chief Kahkewistahaw Community School (CKCS). During the clinic the Davidson School kids imparted their knowledge of dribbling, shooting, basic defensive and offensive plays and the rules of the game to the group of aspiring players.
“Volleyball is a really big thing in (Kahkewistahaw),” Kim said. “The principal (Evan Taypotat), who interned here a couple years ago so we know him pretty well, was trying to get basketball started in their community, so they wanted a couple kids who had been playing basketball for a while (to help).”
Kim said they first received notice Taypotat hoped to get a basketball clinic going when he approached Tony and Sandra Baldwin in late October when the Raiders senior girls volleyball team were playing in a CKCS tournament. She said Sandra then organized how the clinic would operate before asking a few kids if they’d like to go and they were all for it.
“The first day and part of the second day we split everyone up and went over basics,” Kim said. “Then at the end of the second day we had a scrimmage, so we split the kids into two teams and they just played and some of our students played and me and Matthias coached the teams. It was really fun.”
Jill said the Davidson kids were able to show the CKCS students “little tricks” how to approach plays in a different way during the clinic. She said they were also able to give them a quick lesson what to do at different moments in a game.
“They got really good,” said Tina. “Everything they got pretty good at, but they were originally pretty good.”
Tina said this was the first time the Davidson School students have ever done anything like this before, but they would take part in coaching another clinic if given the chance.
Kim said they planned on conducting the basketball clinic at Kahkewistahaw for free, but their good will was rewarded by the generosity of CKCS students at the end of the second day to their complete surprise.
“We had lunch with them the second day (and) they supplied breakfast for us,” she said. “They also gave us all gifts. They gave us all a (CKCS) t-shirt, a pad and a pen and $40. It was really cool.”