Amarie Duran considered Capital High School's tennis camp a great value, and she's just 7 years old.
Duran is no stranger to tennis camps, having been to several, but she said Capital's was "very good" because she gets to test her hitting skills against a ball machine and the "box play" game in which four players hit a ball to each other as they occupy one of four squares.
"The people that teach it are very, very good at playing and they helped us learn some easy things," Duran said. "And they play very fun games with us."
She was one of around 25 players between the ages of 6 and 14 who attended Capital's camp last week, as Jaguars coaches and players guided players through various drills based on their skill level.
It is the third time in the past four years the program held the camps, which are spread out over a couple of weeks in June and July. Capital assistant coach Bruce Cottrell, who helped organize the camp, said he was impressed with the turnout considering the state has been locked down for the most part because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Cottrell said the camp had as many as 35 attendees in 2019, the last time it was held, but he was encouraged by the recent turnout that was mostly based on word of mouth. Cottrell, who was the head girls coach at Los Alamos High School for more then two decades before retiring in 2016, added it is a great way to introduce kids to the sport at a young age because it will likely be something they play as they get older.
"It just they have to try it," Cottrell said. "It is something I say that, when you get over 30 [years of age], it's harder to get games together [in other sports]. I mean, yeah, we all played city league softball and basketball. When you're a little kid, you would play baseball on a dirt lot with seven other friends.
"With tennis, as you get older, you can play just one friend."
The tennis camp costs $20, which Cottrell said is a great value, and it exposes kids to the sport. The participants were divided into age groups on three courts, but Cottrell said more skilled players could move to a different court with players at their level.
Even with that, some of the teenagers working with some of the Capital players showed they are still learning the basics of the game. Cottrell said one thing the coaches and players try to focus on is to improve eye-hand coordination, since it is perhaps the key to the game.
"This doesn't mean they will play tennis, but at least they'll have tried it once," Cottrell said.
The camp is also a way of taking advantage of the only tennis courts on the south-side of town.
Cottrell noted that the city-run tennis courts are on the north and central parts of Santa Fe, which makes it troublesome for south side residents to play.
"Kids in this part of town do not have as much opportunity [to play]," Cottrell said. "This certainly introduces them to the sport."
The hope, Cottrell said, is they stay engaged in tennis and eventually take it up when they reach high school. Olivia Crockett, an 11-year-old whose brother Marcus Crockett plays for Capital, said she and her brother were introduced to tennis by the camp.
Crockett said everything she has learned came from the coaches at the camp and she now plays with some of the varsity players. Cottrell mentioned she is good enough to play for Capital right now.
"I didn't think I would make it to this level at my age now," Crockett said. "When I am actually in high school, he is saying I will be playing with the seniors and stuff and I might even play at state."
The camp also serves another purpose for Capital. Cottrell said it can help develop a feeder system of players for the high-school program. By engaging those potential players at an early age, they will develop their skills when they get to the high school, as opposed to learning them when they show up as underclassmen and eighth graders.
The camps helped Cottrell while he was at Los Alamos, and they developed a pipeline of talent that turned the program into one of the best in the state. He said there is talks of developing a middle-school program at Nina Otero Community School and they would use Capital's courts for matches.
Regardless of the outcome of those goals, Cottrell said he simply wants to expose more children to a sport that he has enjoyed for decades.
"I talk about it being a lifetime sport," Cottrell said. "It's good exercise, and it's a social game. I mean, you don't play football or basketball with your supervisor, but you can in tennis."
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