Farmington High girls basketball team hosting skills camp

Tom Adair has been a busy man in his first few weeks on the job as the new girls basketball coach at Farmington High School.

The offseason has been a time for the Lady Scorpions to regroup after coming up short in the Class 5A state basketball tournament last March in Albuquerque. After participating in several tournaments and camps in Arizona and Colorado this past month, the team will hold one more skills camp starting Monday at the Farmington Boys and Girls Club.

"It's really a chance to teach basic skills to our younger players, defensive skills, passing drills and shooting drills," Adair said. "If you want to be good at basketball, you've got to put the time in."

Adair, who took over as coach of the Lady Scorpions last month after coaching nine seasons at Bloomfield High School, amassing over 125 wins and an appearance in the Class 5A state finals in 2018, has been thrilled with his team since his arrival.

"I've been real pleased with all the girls and my staff and how well we've all come together," Adair said. "We've been going pretty much every day this past month with camps at Fort Lewis College and playing against other teams across the region."

Adair said that camps like these are quite common for high school teams during the month of June, and that many of them allow teams to play a full season of games in a short amount of time.

"A lot of times, we'll play two or three games in a day," Adair said. "And it helps build team chemistry, especially when you're a new coach coming into a program."

Adair is joined at Farmington High by former Bloomfield boys basketball coach Randy Crockett, who is part of the girls staff, as well as Karyn Austin, best known for her playing career at Kirtland Central High School, where she became one of the state's leading girls basketball players, scoring more than 3,000 points during her high school career from 1993-1996.

"Playing against other teams in different places has been really good for us a team, for us to be able to get out there and compete at a high level," Adair said. "It gives everyone of us a chance to get to know each other and what we're able to achieve."

The clinic, which will run through Thursday, June 23, will focus in on the fundamentals of the game as well as allow an opportunity for both players and coaches to learn how to live and participate in a post-pandemic society.

"We weren't able to have these clinics and camps a couple of years back, and even last year there were a handful of them, so I think it's important to get back to a routine where we learn to live with it," Adair said. "Teaching these kids and even ourselves to do the things that are important."

The clinic will be open to students from first through ninth grades and will be held each day from 9am to noon. The cost of the camp is $85 per student and registration is open by contacting Roy Johnson at 505-801-8899.