Naselle senior Jacob Lindstrom (5) drives the baseline for a contested layup against Forks during the BNB Camp.

ILWACO — A youthful Ilwaco boys basketball team made strides while hosting the BNB Camp from June 24-27, where each team played around 10 games over the four-day camp, a final tune-up before schools officially tipoff next fall.

Big, busy camp

More than 20 schools participated, including Ilwaco, Naselle, Davenport, Rainier, Taholah, Mossyrock, Cashmere, Sound Christian, Elma, Crescent, Curlew, Waitsburg, Connell, Forks, Hoquiam, Stevenson, Mary M. Knight, North Beach, Entiat, Evergreen, Adna and Wahkiakum.

Quick games, with two 15-minute halves, were held throughout the day, beginning as early as 7:30 a.m. and continuing past 11 p.m., with breakfast, lunch and dinner served in between. The games were played at Ilwaco High School, Hilltop Middle School, Long Beach Elementary and Ocean Park Elementary, starting Monday, June 24 before ending last Thursday.

The four-day camp allowed local schools, including Ilwaco and Naselle, to gain varsity experience against schools they wouldn’t typically face during the regular season.

“BNB Camp was a great experience to play as many games as we did against competition that we may not see during the regular season,” said Ilwaco head coach Eric McMillan, who will enter his third season at the helm this fall.

“Both the varsity and JVs had a pretty solid camp. We have a talented group of incoming freshmen who have won a lot of travel ball tournaments over the past years, so seeing them face some adversity against older competition was good for us as a group to learn how to respond and be better for it. It was a great time for our varsity guys to get more time together and step into their new roles.”

Ilwaco lost their starting five players to graduation and will rely on incoming juniors and sophomores, who will return with the most varsity experience when the Fishermen take the court next fall. Both classes performed well at the camp against deep competition.

“[Junior] Dylan Pelas and [sophomore] Jacob Gordon continued to grow in their leadership roles as well as get more comfortable with the ball in their hands,” McMillan said.

Several players, including some underclassmen, made impressive strides during the camp.

“Robert Sanders, Spencer Needham and Diego Hernandez were our other upperclassmen who are making the jump from JV to varsity this year who did some nice things though camp. Jacob [Gordon] unfortunately tweaked his ankle late Tuesday night and couldn’t play the rest of the week, but it opened up the door for Chase Cunningham to run the point guard spot, where he did a fine job. Freshmen Cody Kaino and Haddox Hazen also continued to impress and develop confidence as they got a ton of varsity minutes.”