With more summer fun hitting the Hi-Line, the MSU-Northern Skylights basketball team have been busy doing their annual middle school camp for girls going into grades five through nine who have traveled from across the Hi-Line from as far as Whitewater for an overnight experience they’ll never forget.
Skylights head coach Chris Mouat has been holding these camps ever since he stepped on campus in the mid-2000s and said what has been the best part this year.
“I think the most fun thing is to watch our players and our staff,” Mouat said. “This is one of the best staffs we’ve ever had.”
“Just watching them interact with kids and help them, whether the kid’s skill level is maybe not where they want it to be or maybe they’re the best player in camp,” Mouat continued. “Just to watch how they treat the kids is why I’m really proud of this staff.”
One of those Hi-Line youths was once Shyan Krass, who will now be going into her senior season as a paint presence for the Skylights basketball team. She discussed her coaching development at these camps from being a shy freshman to becoming a vocal leader like she is on a Frontier Conference game day and how that translates to helping out the next generation of basketball players.
“It’s nice to see all these little girls that want to be like you and it’s just motivating to know that you have all these eyes on you that think you’re the coolest player or coolest person around,” Krass said.
“How my coaches were, I think about them,” Krass continued. “Like, ‘How did they coach me?’ Because I looked up to them, so I’m like, ‘How can I do the same for these girls?'”
“I always tell (the campers), we’re not going to change everything about you this weekend, but if you keep doing this stuff, you’re going to get better,” Krass said.
Gracie Wasson is a basketball prodigy in these parts. Her mom, Charlene, is a top-10 scorer in Skylights history. Her dad, TJ, transferred to MSU-Northern from Rocky Mountain during his basketball playing days. She has two older sisters: Kia, who will be a redshirt junior on the Montana Tech Lady Orediggers basketball team and Paige, who committed to Rocky Mountain to play basketball starting this fall. Gracie wants to be the next Wasson to make an impact and as she enters high school playing for the defending state champion Saco-Whitewater-Hinsdale, she knows being at these camps will give her the opportunities to showcase what she can do going into her freshman year.
“It just helps me get more looks at stuff and get better competition and more people my age,” Wasson said. “Honestly, just playing against good teams and getting to work with people I haven’t played with before.”
Whether it is Gracie Wasson or the more than 60 campers that Mouat and company have been able to recruit to the annual festivities, he knows that at the end of the day, it is summertime and the kids will have had a lot of fun.
“9am to 9pm camp, most colleges don’t do that anymore, especially for middle school,” Mouat said. “So, it’s unique and we try to make it unique.”
“We want that word to be out there that we do good things for kids and that we’re doing our best,” Mouat continued. “I think the smiles on their faces ultimately is what it’s about.”
“So, when we close and you see that girl go give her coach a hug or a note she wrote her or something like that, that’s when you know you did something good,” Mouat said.
