Coaches get chance to size up prospects at girls hoops camps
By Christopher Lawlor, USA TODAY
Size was a big thing at last week's elite girls
basketball camps, particularly the Adidas Top 10
All-American camp in Suwanee, Ga.
In Suwanee, 95 of the
220 campers were 6-2 or taller, including 6-7 junior center
Jessica Oestricher of Liberty Christian (Redding, Calif.).
Jayne Appel, a 6-4 center from Carondelet High in Concord,
Calif., was named the top post player.
"College coaches want
size," says analyst Dan Olson, a former college coach who
rates players for the All-Star Girls Report. "It was the
main selling point of the camp and gave coaches a chance to
see those players go against each other."
The Atlanta area also
was the site of another girls camp, the debut of the Best of
the Best All-American Camp in Riverdale.
Two camps in the same
town cleared up last summer's logistical challenge for
coaches who had to travel to three sites: Adidas in Suwanee,
Nike All America in St. Louis and All Game Sports in
Charlotte.
Adidas Top 10:
"The younger batch of players
showed they could compete and excel against the older kids,"
says Blue Star Report analyst Chris Mennig, an assistant
coach at Illinois last year.
The top underclassmen
were 5-8 sophomores Nikki Speed of Marlborough (Los Angeles)
and Shay Selby of Regina (South Euclid, Ohio), Oestricher
and 6-3 freshmen Krystal Thomas of First Academy (Orlando)
and Kelsey Bone of Dulles (Sugar Land, Texas).
