Current Newark Wildcats lend helping hand to future

NEWARK - It will be years before Wednesday's students reach the high school.

Just ask coach J.R. Shumate, however, if time flies. The Newark girls basketball program hosted its fourth free clinic of the fall Wednesday, and helping were seniors Emily Paul and Carlee Street, who sat as elementary school students at the same clinic a decade ago.

Now, Paul and Street are a portion of the winningest class in program history after earning back-to-back Division I district titles.

"The first two or three years I was coaching here, we came out to the elementary schools. And it got so big with 40 or 50 kids at each school so we moved it to the high school, but we found that our numbers were declining," Shumate said. "We thought this year we better get back out to the elementary schools and go to them."

Wednesday's clinic at Legend Elementary School served more than 40 students. The clinic featured six stations that included fundamentals on ball-handling, footwork and shooting.

Paul, who will finish statistically as the best point guard in program history, and Street taught ball-handling, while sophomores Morgan Sharps and Katie Shumate taught form shooting. J.R. Shumate reminded the students that practice makes perfect; Sharps recently made 85 of 100 3-point attempts during one individual session.

"It's always fun to try to teach little kids the things we do, and they enjoy it," Street said. "Surprisingly, they get better for their age as the years go on."

The clinic serves as a refresher course for many of the students who attended the program's youth camp in early June and a chance to pick up information on the opportunities afforded youth players at the Licking County Family YMCA and through the Central Ohio Basketball Association.

"We do it so they have access to the information to get involved during the winter, to have a little bit of fun and learn some basketball," J.R. Shumate said. "We have a lot of parents here, and they will give us their contact information so we can keep them in the loop."

For the Wildcats who are not involved in a fall sport, they are champing at the bit to get started. The Wildcats had a successful summer and have spent September fine-tuning their skills in their workouts and in Newark's informal fall league.

Despite Newark returning a large chunk of its roster, each team has its own identity. That already is being built as the Wildcats hope to hit the ground running.

"I am really excited for the season to start, so this helps boost it up," Street said. "Chemistry is really good with this season, so having good chemistry helps during the season when we have to work together."

ksnyder@newarkadvocate.com

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Twitter: @newarkurt