The Miners boys basketball team hosted a youth camp Monday through Thursday at Park City High School, which Miners Head Coach Drew Trost said was well-attended.
Trost and Park City players led fourth through ninth graders through a series of drills and games from 9 a.m. to noon each day. The camp cost $120, which went toward supporting the Miners.
The camp is part of a jam-packed offseason for Park City. The Miners had a spring tournament and workouts, and now have summer workouts, practices and tournaments.
In his first offseason in Park City, Trost is trying to round a team that graduated half of its players into shape. He previously coached at Juan Diego Catholic High School in Draper for over a decade, reaching three state title games.
“Camp went really well this week,” Trost said. “I was really pleased with the turnout for kind of a last minute (ordeal). And I was really pleased with the talent. I think that there’s some great sixth, seventh and eighth grade players coming up, and they too worked hard this week and are getting excited about basketball.”
Trost said he’s also proud of how hard his players worked to make the camp fun for the kids, like they have been doing all offseason. He said he has seen substantial improvements on the physical and mental sides of the game since beginning to work with the team in late April.
“It was crucial to get in and start working,” Trost said. “There’s a lot of them adjusting to the way I want to run things on offense and defense, but the boys have played really hard and have been incredibly receptive. I’ve been super pleased with their attitudes.”
The Miners will continue working hard this summer and extract lessons from the tournament games they lost. The offseason will slow a bit, before picking back up again in the fall with more unofficial games.
“We’ll continue to work hard and with (Park City Strength and Conditioning Coach) Matt (Herhal) to get stronger, quicker and more explosive,” Trost said. “That’s kind of the way of the world in high school sports nowadays. If you’re not playing other sports, you definitely do this kind of year round.”
Trost believes the team’s hard work this offseason is indicative of what should be a strong season ahead. He said the rising senior class, including Koa King, Penn Larkin and Mason Marchetti, will lead the team. He said Marchetti’s work ethic this offseason has been thoroughly impressive.
“I think that our region will be tough, and we’ve got a good schedule that’ll challenge us,” Trost said. “But I really do think we can be competitive. I think we’ll come out there and battle, and I think we can really compete with teams like we did this summer, but we’ll be a lot better, smarter and more prepared.”
The Miners’ season will likely begin in mid-November with a slew of non-region games, as it has in years past. Their schedule has yet to be released.