New rules gives hoops teams early start

 Kris Grundy wanted to make sure everything worked out just right for the first Montgomery Basketball Team Camp.

   Judging by the feedback from area coaches, it went as well or better than the Montgomery High coach could have expected.

   ”The feedback I received was great,” said Grundy, who had 10 teams attend the camp, which ran from June 7-10 at Montgomery High School. “Everything worked out well as far as the organization. The officials were there on time. Everything worked out well, which is important when you are in the first year and you hope that people will come back next year. I’d like it to be 20 teams next year. Hopefully we can get it pretty big. That would be awesome.”

   In addition to Montgomery, both Princeton and West Windsor-Plainsboro South put teams into the event. Over the course of four nights, each team played two games a night for a total of eight games. It was the first chance coaches had to work with their players since the end of last season.

   ”I thought it was good to get the guys back out there on the court,” Princeton coach Jason Carter said. “The teams that were there were very competitive. We had to correct our mistakes right away to be ready for the next game. The teams we played had different styles. Franklin had some very quick guards. Watchung Hills had some big guys. So we saw different styles.”

   Recent rule changes allow coaches to begin working with their teams once the spring sports season ends. Thus, school is not over but the summer season is underway.

   ”We used to have something similar when I was at Absegami that was played at Stockton,” WW-P South coach Bob Schurtz said. “Teams from all around South Jersey would come and it was very competitive. Now the rules have changed and we’re able to coach our kids once the spring season is over. This allows you to figure some things out and get ready for the team camps in the summer.”

   The camp gave coaches a chance to see how much their players had progressed since the end of last season without being in a high-pressure environment.

   ”This was really the first chance to see the kids play since the end of last season,” Carter said. “We mixed and matched depending on who was available. We had 12 guys who were able to play. Some made it to one game, some made it to more. But even being there for one game was a good experience.”

   Added Schurtz: “It was fun. A kid like Eric Bierck has been playing AAU and been out there three or four days a week. He’s still a junior now, but he’ll be one of our senior leaders next season and this summer he’ll get a chance to start in that senior leadership role. It’s a nice chance for some of the kids that are coming back to take more responsibility and get themselves ready for next season.”

   Grundy, whose team is coming off a season in which it won the Central Jersey Group IV title, was happy to have the four days come off without any problems.

   ”This year, with the season that we had, I felt like if I sent something out to coaches that we were having this that they would know the name Montgomery and that we had a quality program,” he said. “The timing worked out because it was the week before we started finals and I think a lot of the other coaches were in the same situation.

   ”This was the first week we could work with our kids. When I first took over as head coach I was always looking for something like this. We go to the Rider camp in a couple of weeks. But we wanted something to get the summer off and running.”