While the middle school summer sports classes offered by Fountain Hills Unified School District focus on introducing younger Falcons to the game, the high school level classes are an opportunity for Falcons to start training for the upcoming fall season a bit earlier than normal.

The same three sports classes offered at the middle school level are being offered to high school students during summer school, including football, basketball and volleyball.

Fountain Hills Middle School P.E. teacher, Amanda Baca, is running the girls varsity basketball camp.

“We are focusing a lot on leadership and the fundamentals of the game,” Baca said. “So when the season starts, instead of spending time working on those things, we can practice advanced offensive and defensive strategies.”

In the girls’ varsity volleyball camp, head coach Pete McGloin focuses on getting the Lady Falcons to gel as a cohesive team.

“The older camp is for upperclassmen and is more team system play,” McGloin said. “Whereas the other camp, for incoming freshmen and sophomores, is focused on basic and intermediate skills.”

McGloin’s varsity class also participates in tournaments during the summer on the days they are not practicing.

All of the varsity level sports classes last longer than two weeks, unlike the middle school counterparts. The football class last the longest.

“Our high school program goes throughout the whole summer,” head coach Jason Henslin said. “The students pay for the two-week summer school program and that price includes the entire summer and our three-day team camp at the end of July. The program for high school includes four days a week in the weight room and two days per week on the field.”