Investing five hours on a Saturday to up their basketball skills, 21 Cleveland high school boys and girls attended the Pure Intensity basketball camp today.
The camp was operated by Pure Intensity owner Daniel Makepeace, who is also in his third year as varsity assistant coach for the Providence Academy (Plymouth) girls basketball team.
Most of the time at the clinic, attendees practiced footwork, attacking closeouts, ball fakes, starting and stopping without traveling, improving ball handing pressure, weak hand development, finishing moving without the ball and playing off of screens.
A third of the time, they were in game-like scenarios where they could use the skills they learned while boosting confidence and improving their basketball IQ and decision making.
At the end of the camp, Makepeace told the attendees to continue to practice regularly and to practice with an organized plan to work on specific skills.
Makepeace also has an excellent track record at the state girls basketball tournament. Last year, Providence finished 30-2 and won the 2A state championship for the second-straight year. He also was the varsity girls assistant coach at Robbinsdale Cooper in 2018 when Cooper went 29-2 and won the 3A state championship and in 2019 when Cooper took fourth in the state tournament. As assistant girls coach at Eastview for two years, Eastview won the 4A state championship in 2014 and took second place in the state a year later.
Many players who trained at Pure Intensity have received full basketball scholarships to play in college.
Cleveland head girls basketball coach Joe Remiger organized the camp.
Above: At the camp were, from L-R, front row: Kiya Sohn, Hadley Thompson, Valentina Rohlfing, Gretchen Heldberg, Emma Kortuem, Harper Rutz, August Keltgen, Pierce Lyons, Luke Kortuem and Jack Mons. Back row: Coach Joe Remiger, Ava Kluntz, Taylor McCabe, Lacey McCabe, Gavin Karels, Garrett Heldberg, Mason Kluntz, Alex Johnson, Jake Mueller, Tony Hollerich, Carson Lyons and Daniel Makepeace. Missing is Kylie Wobbrock.
