Gym class

Shane Warwick brings skill-set workout and a trophy case full of

success to summer basketball camp in Ronan

RONAN - Standing in front of a group of Ronan basketball athletes at the Event Center last Monday, traveling coach Shane Warwick had this to say.

"If you want to be a basketball player, this is what you have to do."

This was after Warwick had worked them through an array of offensive drills taken directly from NBA trainers and taught to NBA and college players. Warwick was breaking down the game to the fundamentals and building it back up for success.

"It was the best offensive skills camp I've seen in my 20 years coaching," Ronan head coach Steve Woll said.

As impressed as Woll was, Warwick was the one most impressed, namely with the Chiefs' and Maidens' coaching staff.

"The most important thing is developing a skill-based basketball program," Warwick said. "And seeing all those coaches show up from different levels in the Ronan program is very positive."

That's coming from somebody who was twice named South Dakota's College Basketball Coach of the Year and who coaches at the NBA Free Agent Camp along with working with NBA Rookies in preparation for the draft. Warwick said that it's important to teach kids the same system early, otherwise they'll be relearning everything when they reach their freshman year of high school. The universal implementation of a skill system is something both Warwick and the Ronan coaching staff agree with whole heartedly.

"It will be a building block effect," Woll said. "You may not see a direct effect on the varsity level this year, but in the future from here on out you'll be seeing this a lot more in the open gyms, workouts and practices."

And what he's talking about it the Warwick Workouts, something that NBA and college players have used and will end up being something that Ronan players use as well. Warwick purposely keeps his camp down to a manageable size, and then keeps the pace up at a high level.

"They loved it," Woll said of the Ronan kids. "He had them balling around for three hours straight."

Warwick had them work on a dizzying array of dribbling and shooting drills seemingly taken directly from the highlight reels of Dwayne Wade and Kobe Bryant. Woll said that ball handling skills were similar to the ones they implement in Ronan, but Warwick took it to the next level.

"Every coach took something new away from that camp," Woll said.

Warwick himself has built many state championship teams implementing the same skills system and spends a considerable amount on the road working with different programs.

Perhaps what separates him from other basketball camp organizers is he'll check in to see how schools are doing with the things he's taught them.

"I'll check back in," he said. "That's the rewarding part, seeing the progress."

Woll said that in order for his players to get a good grasp of the skill sets that Warwick laid out, they'll have to hit the gym.

"You have to take what you learn in camp and work on it," he said. "The bottom line is practice."

Woll said there are open gyms in Ronan during the summer five days a week, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with plenty of other times that kids can work on their game.

"There's hardly ever a time when they can't be in the gym," Woll said.

So with some hard work, chances are when Warwick checks back in on Ronan, he'll have something to brag about.