Continuing the tradition: Houston County softball hosts kids' camp

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WARNER ROBINS — For as long as she can remember, Houston County softball coach April Collins has been helping with or running a summer kids’ camp at HoCo High School.

Collins recalls helping run the camp as a player in the late 2000s, and has continued running it as head coach the last three years.

Monday through Wednesday of this week HoCo hosted a softball camp for kids ages 5-11, and 53 campers showed up to bear down in the summer heat.

Monday and Tuesday the campers worked on defense and offense respectively, while on Wednesday they’ll do a combination of both as well as practice sliding on the Slip ’N Slide.

There were plenty of Lady Bears, past and current, there to help run the different groups and guide the campers through the drills.

A portion of Tuesday’s offensive drills were dedicated to base running — which included running through first, rounding first to go to second and so on.

The batting cages were also open, and groups rotated through.

Collins prefers to split the sides of the game into different days to make it easier for the campers to bring equipment to and from home.

This year’s weather was far more forgiving to the camp and Collins’s plans, last year it rained on both Monday and Tuesday.

That required the Lady Bears to take shelter in the new gym and the batting cages, and forced them to jumble together offense and defense as opposed to separating them as Collins prefers.

The camp is a good opportunity for young kids to be introduced to softball, work on their fundamentals and have a little bit of fun, too.