ROCHELLE — Tim Thompson understands the importance of building a winning culture, and for the Hubs varsity basketball coach, the foundation of that culture begins at the youth level.

Joined by assistant coaches, current players and Rochelle alums, Thompson led roughly 100 campers through basic drills and fundamental exercises at the team’s youth basketball camp Monday morning. The camp runs through Thursday, and Thompson said he’s looking forward to spending more time with Rochelle’s young ballers.

“I have a blast with it,” he said. “We have more first through fourth-graders this year than we’ve ever had so that shows how popular basketball is with kids at that age level and how much they want to stay active with it. I love working with the younger kids because everything is so pure and new, and there’s such a wide variety of talent.”

While the older campers who play in the Rochelle Youth Basketball Association or for Rochelle Middle School may have more experience than younger campers just learning the game, the program strives to teach all players the same skills put forward at the high school level. Some of those skills include shooting, passing and dribbling.

“We start with fundamentals no matter what level we coach at,” Thompson said. “Some of the drills we run with first-graders we also run with our varsity players, and people might think that’s crazy but those are the basic skills players need… We only have four days with them but we want to get those general concepts in and start to hone those.”

The youth camp may only run for one week, but Thompson said it will be important for players to continue practicing their newly-acquired techniques outside of the gym. He also said another goal of the program is to instill life lessons the young players can apply to their everyday situations moving forward.

“We want them to accept coaching and we want them to go out and try as hard as they possibly can,” Thompson said. “We want them to give coaches eye contact and to show them that they’re trying to change and give their best effort. We’re not expecting them to be perfect after four days by any stretch, but those lessons are absolutely important. We also want them to have a good time.”

Several Hub players helped lead the young campers through layup lines and shooting drills including rising seniors Angel Aguirre, Riley Lodico and Komla Gati. Rochelle graduates Kyle Seebach and Matt Rosenwinkel were also on hand to assist the players. For Thompson, having both current and former Hubs in the gym to show the young players the game is a blessing in more ways than one.

“That’s the strength of the program and our high school,” he said. “These kids want to come back and they want to give back and help… These kids are impressionable and they understand the history of our program.”