Staff Writer
FORT FAIRFIELD – A pair of Black Bears entered Tiger territory to teach some dribbling, screening and shooting techniques this summer. Christina Mosher and Tanna Ross, both members of the University of Maine at Orono women’s basketball team, joined the coaching staff of the 2008 Tiger Basketball Camp the last week of June and first full week of July.
Staff photo/Meridith Paterson
BLACK BEARS TURN INTO TIGERS. Tanna Ross (left) and Christina Mosher (right), members of the University of Maine at Orono’s women’s basketball team, coached at this summer’s Tiger basketball camp.
According to camp director Larry Gardner, the sophomore Black Bears have proved excellent role models for the young athletes. “It’s nice that our younger kids can see them and ask them questions during the lectures,” said Gardner. “They tell them what a season entails, both in season and off season. They explain what they have to do academically and the training … and, at that age, they all look up to them. They’re great role models.”
Both Mosher and Ross were searching for a summer job that would allow them to keep up their basketball training while giving them experience working with children, and went to their coach Cindy Blodgett for advice. Blodgett, a former Tiger camp staff member, recommended the Fort Fairfield position to the pair.
“She’s looking out for us, that’s why she sent us up here,” said Ross.
Both Black Bears worked at the UMO sports camps, but were impressed with the structure of the Tiger camp. “This camp is a lot more detailed,” said Ross.
Mosher explained that in other camps each day there will be six or seven stations dedicated to shooting, screening, dribbling and so on, and the campers spend a set amount of time at each station. However, at the Tiger camp each day had a designated skill such as shooting with six or seven stations devoted to that skill.
Mosher and Ross each coached an eight-player team. The campers began the week slightly intimidated by the pair’s height and status, but the player-coach relationship grew as the week went on.
“Getting them to open up to us was a little difficult,” explained Ross. “They were pretty shy, but once they got used to us it was great.”
The group taught the Black Bears some lessons on coaching over the five-day camp as well. “You have to talk to them about something right when they get off the court,” said Mosher about what she learned about working with the players.
“Certain players need you to show them, and others can just listen,” added Ross. “You have to approach people in different ways, because they learn in different ways.”
The Tiger basketball camp began in the 1980s solely for Fort Fairfield youth and grew to include campers from as far away as Belfast and Grand Falls, N.B. The ’08 boys’ and girls’ camps welcomed a combined 220 players.
“This year’s camp was very competitive,” said Gardner. “There were a lot of good players.”
