The Social Circle baseball program hosted its annual summer youth camp this past week from Monday June 17 to Wednesday, June 19.

With multiple coaches and players in attendance to help, the team received a large turnout of kids from Social CIrcle and the surrounding areas.

With the kids being a mix of new and familiar faces, the event was an all-around success, according to Redskins head coach Kevin Dawkins.

“[It was about] teaching the game of baseball and teaching them to have fun,” Dawkins said. “We do ages 5-12, so when we get to the 11- and 12-year-olds, a lot of those kids play on our middle school team. It’s just another opportunity for us to get them in front of the coaching staff. For the young ones, it is a chance to have them come out here for a few days and hang out with the high school guys.”

For Dawkins, a lot of the joy from the camp was seeing the kids interact with the players.

“I even told our high school guys, ‘At the end of the day, these kids can care less that they are out here and we’re [coaches] coaching them. They get to hang out with the high school guys for three days,’” Dawkins said. “It is just one of those things where it was a chance to get them out here and have some fun and learn something in the process.”

Current and former Social Circle players such as Landon Harpe, Gehrig Knapp and Caden Richardson were on the field to help the campers through drills and to provide pointers.

Dawkins felt the decision to have his players run the camp provided them with an opportunity to step out of their own comfort zone.

“I enjoy it. It is probably one of my favorite things that we get to do on a yearly basis,” Dawkins said. “A lot of these guys come out here and play on the field and are very confident in their abilities and they know what to do out there. [But this] puts them in situations they aren’t so comfortable with, and it teaches them to get comfortable in those situations. It shows them that their influence is bigger than they might think it is.

“We have campers that have been coming for three years now, so they know some of these guys by name. It is really cool to see them come up to the high schoolers and know them by name.”

With a large turnout even carrying over the final day of the camp, Dawkins attributed it to the belief and support from the community.

“It is awesome,” Dawkins said. “It means a lot to me that people are recognizing what we are trying to do as a program and what we are trying  to do in terms of getting out in the community and reaching out in the community. Just the sheer support, because it is not just Social Circle, we have people from Newton County, Walton County and Monticello that are coming out here. It shows that what we are doing as a program is reaching the community, but even outside of that community. It makes me really proud.”