Playing summer hoops in the Dells

Every summer, tourists flock to the tiny south central Wisconsin town of Wisconsin Dells to hangout in one of their abundant water parks.
But for members of the Blooming Prairie boys’ basketball team, their intention for visiting the “waterpark capital of the world” was to spend some time on the hardwood – although they spent plenty of time in the water as well.
The Blossoms took part in the “Shootout in the Dells” Thursday and Friday at various sites in nearby Baraboo.
This event went beyond wins and losses, but served as an opportunity to play some summer organized basketball and to build some team camaraderie.
“I was looking for something for us to do as a team, get some team bonding in for the summer and play a lot of basketball, but not necessarily something that had to be all basketball all the time,” said head coach Nate Piller.
“When you talk about extra-curriculars and things like that in high school, when I look back on my own experiences, it’s those relationships you build with friends. If you can build from there, a lot of good things will happen.” 
Fourteen players made the trip and were split into two teams. Each squad played three games each day against other high school teams from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan.
Playing against teams you’ve never seen or heard of can be a challenge, but also fun at the same time.
“It’s pretty neat. We’ve played against teams from just our conference so we know how they’re going to play,” said soon-to-be sophomore Trent Swenson. “Then coming here, playing all these teams, we don’t know how they’re going to play, what they’re going to do. It’s fun to see how we all react and together as a team.”
Blooming’s mindset on the court over the two days was more about playing free-flowing basketball rather than working on set plays.
“What I like about this is that it teaches the kids how to play basketball, no matter if you want to run plays or not,” said Piller. “It teaches how to anticipate some stuff, how to read defenses, just know the fundamentals of running basketball rather than having the kids worry about having to get to a certain place on the court at a certain time.”
One of the trademarks of the event is that it is not a tournament, but it’s rather an excellent opportunity to prepare for the upcoming season. For a young team like the Blossoms, getting extra opportunities to play together as a team and to get to know each other better will be very beneficial when practices start in roughly four months.
“I think (playing here) is helping more with team chemistry than actual basketball,” said soon-to-be junior Nick Thompson.
Building that team chemistry is what Piller was hoping to accomplish on this trip.
“We have a lot of nice kids on our team, but they don’t all socially hang out together,” he said. “They’re finding out they have a lot more in common with the guys. They’re a lot more commonalities that they can build from and that part I think will be very beneficial.”
Piller asked many of the kids if they would like to come to the Dells again and received a lot of yes votes. One said he would like to do it again next week if they could.
Swenson and Thompson both enjoyed playing basketball, but the most fun they had was off the court. “I enjoyed the friends, hanging out and messing around,” said Swenson. “I enjoyed going to the water park best,” said Thompson.
It seems the trip met the goals Piller set: 1) to play a lot of basketball and 2) to build some team bonding.