Published: June 21, 2008 12:16 am            

GIRLS BASKETBALL: Clarksville team camp grows to 26 teams

Clarksville High School athletic director Troy Mitchell plays a lot of roles, but once a year he gets a to add another — event planner.

That’s because Mitchell, also the head coach of the Generals girls’ basketball team, spends part of his offseason putting together the Clarksville Team Camp. Now in its eighth season, the two-day event is officially all grown up, becoming one of the most popular state-wide destinations for summer basketball.

“Every year I say we’re going to stop at 20 (teams),” said Mitchell, as his team prepared to meet Morristown for its fourth game of the day on Friday. “But we’ve got the gym space. It sometimes seems like a chore, but it’s definitely something we can handle.”

This year, 26 varsity squads from across the state converged on Clarksville, coming from both the local area and from all other corners of the state for a guarantee of six games on two afternoons. River Forest — from Lake County in the northwest corner of Indiana — made the longest trek, driving four-and-a-half hours to meet foes such as Manchester, South Central and Paoli.

The slate also includes squads from the Indianapolis area (Guerin Catholic), Madison County (Frankton, Lapel) and even two representatives from Putnam County (North and South Putnam, mixing it up with local teams from the likes of Borden, Providence and the host Generals.

Oddly enough, it is the limits that Mitchell places on the field that give it a seemingly-unlimited amount of participants. Only Class A and 2A teams are invited to the camp with the exception of Charlestown, a now-3A school that still enters because it has been part of Mitchell’s brainchild since its humble beginnings.

“Every year, I send a letter to every A and 2A school in the state,” Mitchell said. “This is entirely a word-of-mouth kind of deal. A lot of them come because so-and-so came last year and said it was good.”

Mitchell goes to great lengths to ensure it stays that way.

Once the field is set, Mitchell compares the records of each team from last season and places them into matchups against teams with comparable marks to ensure competitive games. He also checks upcoming schedules to make sure that each team’s six games come against competition that they stand little chance of seeing in the upcoming regular season.

Mitchell’s own team proves that. The Generals — a team in state of flux after the graduation of Evening News and Tribune Player of the Year Jessica Johnson — played Clinton Central, South Putnam, Morristown and one of two South Central teams on Friday. Saturday’s slate included River Forest and Tecumseh.

Sometimes, the geographical seperation pays off, such as when Austin met Tell City at Clarksville’s camp last summer, and then saw the Marksmen again in the first round of the regionals. The Eagles ended up winning 65-52, en route to an appearance in the semistate.

“The whole point is to help teams figure out what they have to do to get better,” Mitchell said. “It’s why teams keep coming back. A lot of 1A schools won’t go to other places because they’ll end up playing a 4A team and getting crushed and that doesn’t always help you improve.”

That doesn’t mean that some of the state’s current hoops powers weren’t in attendance. Besides 22-4 Austin, the tournament also featured Jac-Cen-Del (20-3), Lapel (22-3) and Class 2A regional finalist Southwestern.

In all, Mitchell presides over a total of 67 games at four different sites, with the tournament being shifted to two gyms at Providence this year because of renovations at Clarksville Middle School, the traditional alternate site of the tourney.

Games are played in abbreviated format, with two 18-minute halves with a continously-running clock. Time is stopped only in the last minute of each half, and the intermission only runs three minutes. There is no pool play and no overall champion. Wins and losses are beside the point — it’s all about the compeition.

“In this tournament, your team might go 0-6, but we try to make it so you lose those games by six points or eight points, and you play the sort of games that will help you in the upcoming season,” Mitchell said.

It’s an event that is for the coaches, the teams and the kids more than anything else, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing interesting to see. This year’s event marked a pair of public debuts that could very well change the landscape of area girls’ hoops this winter.

Borden made its first appearance with a new, albeit familar, face. Andrea Rademacher, a standout center at Scottsburg the past three seasons, suited up for the Braves at the camp for the first time after her transfer to the West Clark school. Rademacher is one of Southern Indiana’s premier players, averaging 15.5 points per game for the Warriors last season. She hit 46 percent of her field goal attempts last winter, and was successful on nearly 80 percent of her tries from the foul line.

Rademacher’s breakout game from last season came against Class 4A New Albany, where she delivered 26 points and nine rebounds against the sort of large varsity squad she’ll seldom see as part of Southern Athletic Conference play if she ends up on the Braves roster.

Providence also saw a long-awaited debut, as former South Central assistant brad Burden made his debut as the new Pioneer head coach. Burden replaced Ty Anderson last month.

“What’s neat is that the games come from all over the place,” said Burden. “The schools in this area beat up on each other all season, so it’s great to get some variety and see some teams that you wouldn’t see until down the road in the postseason, if you’d see them at all.”

When Mitchell first came to Clarksville eight years ago, what he saw was the opportunity to do something special for his program with a minimum of travel, all while working under the IHSAA’s rules for summer play. Now, it’s a hot destination for teams from all over the Indiana map.

That’s a victory that actually counts.

“We have good facilities, so I figured we didn’t need to travel all over the place,” said Mitchell. “Clarksville is a great place to travel to for all the teams. It’s worked out well for everybody.”



Locals in action

It’s going to be a busy Saturday for area teams at the second day of the 2008 Clarksville team camp. A look at the schedule for local girls’ basketball teams today:

8:30 a.m. — Clarksville vs. River Forest (CHS main gym); Charlestown vs. South Putnam (CHS aux. gym).

9:20 a.m. — Borden vs. North Putnam (CHS main gym).

10:10 a.m. — Clarksville vs. Manchester (CHS main gym); Charlestown vs. Guerin Catholic (CHS aux. gym).

11:00 a.m. — Borden vs. Tecumseh (CHS aux. gym); Providence vs. Paoli (Providence main gym).

1:30 p.m. — Borden vs. Providence (PHS main gym).

2:20 p.m. — Clarksville vs. Tecumseh (CHS main gym).

3:10 p.m. — Charlestown vs. North Putnam (CHS main gym); Providence vs. South Central (PHS aux. gym).

4:00 p.m. — Clarksville vs. Guerin Catholic (CHS main gym).

        

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