Little Cowboys Camp inspires future stars at Killdeer High School

Jun. 1—KILLDEER — The inaugural "Little Cowboys" is well underway at Killdeer High School, and Cowboys head basketball coach Greg Pruitt said it's come off as a resounding success so far. The three-day camp is being hosted at the school's new gymnasium, so the more than 100 young people have been enjoying a variety of activities, from skills to fitness. But the overall goal of the camps is much simpler than that.

"The whole purpose of the camp is to get the elementary boys and girls excited about the basketball season and the future season of the Cowboys," Pruitt said. "We had a great year this year, and we had 127 participants which are great numbers and it's going very well."

The athletes receive trophies and medallions for their efforts, which is what most of the $50-per-student fee goes towards. But the camp also gives the kids a chance to learn about the game in an introductory fashion and helps to maintain their development in the sport.

"Once the summer comes here, we get them excited and working on their skills over the summer and what we do is to have our camp right away," Pruitt said. "The camp gives them some excitement and something to look forward to and some things they can practice on."

The camp is run by Pruitt, Coach Dani Hasek, Athletic Director Nick Walker, Assistant Coach Taylor Conrad and School Resource Officer John Abalos.

"The cool thing about our gymnasium is that we can lower the hoops down to eight feet, so our Kindergartners through third-graders get to shoot on those and get to practice seeing the ball going through the hoops," Pruitt said. "But it really is just all the fundamentals; we work on ball-handling a lot on passing and what we do is we have competitions with them where they get a chance to win things and it's just a fun, overall camp."

Also, the athletes from the KHS basketball program participate in the program as a way for them to volunteer their time doing something they love to do and passing on their knowledge.

In the near future, there are some other opportunities on the horizon in the Twin Buttes, ND area for young students featuring former University of Wisconsin player Bronson Koenig, but no information was available at press-time.

For more information about the Killdeer High School basketball program, please read The Dickinson Press and/or visit

https://ndhsaanow.com/teams/basketball-boys/3187

.