VALDOSTA — Young athletes are flocking to Valdosta High School this week for the Valdosta Baseball Summer Skills Camp, a four-day instructional experience led by Wildcats head coach Bart Shuman and his staff.

Open to players ages 5–13, the camp started Monday at the Valdosta High School baseball complex. The focus, Shuman said, is simple but essential: build better ballplayers through repetition and fun.

At camp, the focus starts with the basics—throwing, catching, and hitting. Once those foundational skills begin to improve, coaches begin to layer in more advanced elements. The goal is to build strong habits through consistent, quality repetitions.

Each day kicks off at 9:30 a.m., often with early arrivers getting supervised extra cage work in before the official start. From there, campers rotate through agility drills, throwing and catching sessions, and a final skills rotation where they play different positions across the field. This keeps the experience fresh and helps players discover where they feel most comfortable. The week ends with a full scrimmage, letting all age groups show what they’ve learned in live game action.

Helping run the camp are a mix of coaches and players from the Valdosta program, including assistant coach Garrett Laseter, middle school head coach Thomas Lankford, former player Andre Mason, senior Braeden Lampkin, Wildcat player Ricky Reynolds, and more. College athletes are also expected to drop in and share their insight and skills with the young campers.

While the instruction is focused, Shuman said the goal is also to keep the energy up and the kids engaged.

“I try to make it fun,” he said. “We play games as far as competing, like who’s got the fastest hands, or incorporate some competitions in our running activities.”

Shuman, who’s led the Wildcats program for years, said the camp is just one part of a broader effort to develop young talent in the community. Regardless of school affiliation, the coaching staff looks to use the camp to develop young athletes and give them the tools to grow in the game of baseball.

“My favorite part is that by the end of the week, you can see the improvement of what we are doing,” he said. “You see it in the drills and fundamentals. If you don’t enjoy that, then you probably don’t need to be coaching. That is what makes us who we are.”