ROCKINGHAM — As he watched local middle schoolers enjoy the final moments of Richmond Senior High School’s Future Raiders baseball camp, Eric Brown noted that the future is bright.
The Raider baseball program concluded its three-day developmental camp for its older age group Wednesday, complete with pizza and a giant slip-and-slide.
Open to rising sixth, seventh and eighth graders, the Future Raiders camp had 32 players in attendance.
Similar to last week’s camp, the focus was making it an enjoyable experience. An added bonus with the Future Raiders, Brown noted, was being able to refine certain skill sets due to a strong group of baseball-savvy players.
“Overall, everything was great this week,” Brown said. “These guys are a pretty good little group, they’ve obviously played a lot of baseball to this point. This week was good because we were able to do a lot more instruction from our coaches.
“With the older guys, it was really hands-on,” he continued. “We were able to really work on the fundamentals — hitting, base running, defense, pitching, catching — all of those good things. There’s some good kids in this group, so I’m excited about our future.”
Wednesday’s activities featured a lot of live baseball. Working with their coaches, which were current Raider baseball players, campers rotated between the batting cage and a scrimmage on the diamond.
Helping lead instruction were junior varsity head coach Anthony Hailey, varsity assistant Andy Shuler and athletic director Mike Way.
Richmond’s current players who offered their advice were rising seniors Riley Brown, Conner Phifer, Jeremiah Ritter, Landon Taylor and Jason Walker, rising junior Colton Brown and rising sophomore Jakob Trexler. Isaac Hinshaw, who graduated earlier this month, was also present.
Following the scrimmages, campers grabbed a slice of pizza before working on their final drill — sliding. With the help of a giant tarp and dish soap, campers enjoyed a slip-and-slide on the hill down the left field line.
“It’s summer and we thought this would be a great way to end camp,” Brown closed. “Slip-and-slide is a summer staple and the guys worked hard all week. They’re kids and we wanted to have some fun.”
Below are photos of Wednesday’s final day of camp, taken by sports editor Kyle Pillar.
