“They train. It never ends. It’s conditioning and skill work and being on campus (going to class),” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said Friday, watching her Jayhawks assist as coaches at her Elite camp for high school and junior high players at Horejsi Center.

“They are allowed to work with the strength and conditioning coach and can get in the gym on their own. For some kids without access to gyms, it’s really good,” Henrickson added, speaking in glowing terms of her players, who are eager to improve on last year’s 17-13 record, which included the school’s first postseason victory since 1999.

“It’s refreshing because they love to be in the gym. They get along so well. If you see one of them, the rest are not far behind,” Henrickson said.

All of the returning Jayhawks are in town for the June session of summer school, as well as incoming players Lindsay Ballweg, Rebecca Feickert, Danielle McCray and Sade Morris.

Rachel Seymour

“We work out every morning at 6, go to class, then do individual workouts by ourselves,” junior forward Jamie Boyd explained.

“We’re busy going to school, working out,” noted senior guard Shaquina Mosley. “It’s good because you know you are getting better. It’s all for the best.”

They gathered as a group on Friday at Horejsi, taking on the role of coaches of the elite campers – teaching transition,

spacing, communicating and creating opportunities on the court, among other things.

“I do feel like a coach and I kind of like it,” Boyd said. “It’s kind of neat to sit on the other side and see what it’s like.”

“I don’t know if I’d want to be a coach (for a living). I need to have more patience. Hats off to all the coaches here. They have to deal with a lot,” Mosley said.

Henrickson had her players demonstrate some of the Jayhawks’ drills Friday during a 45-minute instructional period in which KU’s third-year coach talked almost nonstop without the aid of a microphone.

“She is a dandy for sure,” Boyd said. “Coach knows her basketball and can pass it on to others.”

“She has to (talk) in practice for three hours so she’s used to it. We always need her to fix something,” Mosley said with a grin. “She is making sure they are leaning.”

Henrickson said the atmosphere at her Elite camp, which includes one of the top players in Missouri (Tyra White, K.C. Hickman Mills High) and one of the best in Kansas (Joanna McFarland, Derby) is as intense as a mid-season Jayhawk workout.

“I think what is good about this opportunity is we run it like a college practice, our drills, how we teach. We’re trying to simulate the intensity of a college practice,” Henrickson said. “We expose them to what it’s like at the next level as far as pace of the drill, instruction, the need to be good listeners and communicators. I think it’s great competition which will help them as well.

“We tell them, ‘This may be different from what your are taught at your high school. Different doesn’t mean better. Different is different.’ We expose them to some different techniques.”

McCray, Ballweg and Morris all attended the Elite camp when they were in high school.

“Last year I played. It was good experience and it was fun,” said McCray, just a couple weeks removed from high school where she was a state champion in the triple jump and shot put at Olathe East.

She will compete in one sport – basketball – at KU.

“It’s because my love is for basketball,” said the 6-foot McCray, expected to be one of the Big 12’s top newcomers this year after being named a Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year, Sunflower League Player of the Year and first-team all-stater.

“Track was great but I’m able to give it up easily because basketball is my No. 1 priority.”

McCray says she’s already learned a lot playing pickup games with the returning Jayhawks and some ex-Jayhawks like Crystal Kemp and Erica Hallman.

“Mentally I’m getting used to it now, the physical game, the bumping,” McCray said. “I’m working hard on and off the court. My classes are going well. Our team … we are really cool together.”

That fact was obvious during the camp – the players enthusiastic as they coached.

“I think this is a fantastic learning opportunity for our players,” Henrickson said. “They’ll come back when it’s over and say, ‘I demonstrated, they didn’t listen and it’s so frustrating when they don’t concentrate.’ We’ll say, ‘Oh really, imagine that,”’ she exclaimed.

“To be able to do something is one thing. To be able to teach it you have to understand it at another level. I’ve always thought it was great for players to do that.”