Basketball coach Travis Nystoruk pulled off a last minute two-day camp for children in Williams Lake Aug. 28 and 29.
"We are still working on some rules," he said as the final 15 minutes of the camp unfolded Thursday in the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) Williams Lake campus gym.
Nystoruk is one of the coaches with the Williams Lake Basketball Association and said the camp was aimed at seven to 10-year-olds, but also attracted a few younger players.
There had not been any events for children of that age group so the week before the camp the association decided something had to be done.
After Nystoruk put a post on social media about the camp, within 30 hours it was filled.
"We planned for 12 to 15, and we had 15 signed up right away. Everyone enjoyed it."
Evan Buchi, 15, was the assistant coach for the camp.
"Evan has been playing for my team for the last two years. He's quite a fine young man and a good leader," Nystoruk said.
The children enjoyed having Evan on the court with them, he added.
"The kid works hard and does everything the right way. We love seeing him working with the kids. Another person who has been helping me out quite a bit this summer is Ben Zirnhelt. He is usually out to these clinics but he wasn't able to come to this one."
Getting teenagers involved and sharing their leadership qualities is always good, Nystoruk said.
Over the summer the association was in TRU four or five days, running individual workouts, drop-in Fridays and a three-on-three league for most of the summer that lasted until Aug. 18.
They also hosted a four-day summer camp with Scott Clark from TRU.
Clark was the head coach of TRU WolfPack men's basketball from the 2010-2011 season until 2022-2023 when he moved into the role of manager, high performance sport at TRU.
Nystoruk gave a shout out to Marc Lowen, acting director of operations at School District 27, who was able to secure TRU for the camp with Clark.
"TRU has been awesome," he said. "They really support the kids' sports. The schools were shut down for the summer and we haven't been able to finalize anything for the fall yet."
Basketball will resume the second week of September, with times to be announced.
"It's been tough to find space," he said, adding he really hopes the city does get another indoor sports facility in the near future. "Youth sports are suffering. We have the volunteers but have to find a gym."
