The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo Vulcans’ volleyball and basketball summer camps overflowed with enthusiastic participants in July. The volleyball camp hosted 92 summer athletes, and the basketball camp saw nearly 200 participants.
Vulcan volleyball camp
One of the first orders of business when Gene Krieger became the new head volleyball coach at UH Hilo was to establish a summer camp for local kids, of which there wasn’t one previously.
“I hoped to have 40 or more local kids at our first camp, and the plan would be to add more each year and expand our boundaries,” Krieger said.
The campers ranged from seven-years of age through high school. There are 50 elementary and middle school students and 42 high school players.
Of the younger group, 40 are from the Big Island and ten hail from Maui. The high school section has 15 from the Big Island and ten from the other Hawaiian Islands. The rest of the group traveled to Hilo from Alaska, California, Washington, Arizona, Texas, Colorado and Wisconsin.
“That was probably the biggest surprise,” Krieger admitted. “I didn’t expect to get a dozen kids from the mainland.”
“This is an amazing turnout,” Krieger added. “I am overwhelmed by the number of people we have and great quality of players. I believe this is another important part of the UH Hilo volleyball program making big strides forward.”
Vulcan hoops camp
It took the return of some legendary names of old to bring out nearly 200 of the island’s young this week for the Vulcan Basketball Camp, featuring Coach Jimmy Yagi.
The Hall of Fame coach is joined this year by another former successful Vulcan head coach, Bob Wilson.
In addition to receiving great teaching from the coaches, the 199 keiki, ages eight through 17, also received a free basketball, camp t-shirt, camp team photo and lunch each day. Additionally, current Vulcan players, both men and women, were involved in the teaching.
“We could not be happier with the turnout of this Vulcan Summer Basketball Camp,” said UH Hilo athletic director Patrick Guillen. “We exceeded our goals and have nearly 200 campers. They will learn from the best of the best that the Big Island has to offer. We are grateful that so many area coaches came out to support and to also have Coach Jimmy Yagi, Bob Wilson and Bill O’Rear here too is amazing.”
