Wednesday afternoon middle school students headed to the courts at Grace Christian Academy for a week of sharpening their footwork at basketball camp.

Coach Barry Taylor is leading the camp and helping the young athletes work on all phases of the game.

“They will be ball handling, dribbling, shooting, playing three-on-three games,” he said.

Taylor said not all of the students have played before, but he is trying to teach them the fundamentals of the game and expand on the foundation they have already learned.

Camper Cat Griffin is a huge fan of Taylor and thinks he has taught her a lot already.

“It’s always fun to work with him,” she said. “Footwork, shooting, drills, everything is always fun.”

Griffin has been playing basketball since sixth grade, but didn’t get to be on the court until seventh grade.

Now that she has joined varsity, she said she loves being out on the floor and it seems like she’s been playing forever.

Griffin hopes camp only improves her game on the court, and she thinks it will with Taylor’s help.

“He helps with everything,” she said. “He gives up different facts about shooting styles and defense styles, and now we have a fifth grader who he’s teaching the basics of shooting to.”

Ben Faircloth, 13, was also in attendance and learned how to handle the ball correctly and shoot from Taylor.

Faircloth said while he loves learning more, he just enjoys being able to get out on the court and play basketball with his friends. He has already scored points in the camp matchup games and hopes to give nothing but net for the rest of camp.

Taylor hopes he can teach all the kids something and spent the remainder of the day playing three on three games with them, making the rule he couldn’t shoot; he could only pass.