Despite last week’s wet weather, baseball players took the field at Free State High School to work on their hitting and defensive skills, and get in a little extra practice time during their little-league seasons.

The baseball camp, which has been around for about a decade, is an opportunity for players to improve their fundamentals. For those players who plan to advance to the high school level, the camp is a chance to meet their future coaches and take their game to a higher level.

“The goal of the camp is two-fold,” said camp director and FSHS baseball coach Mike Hill. “The first is to give the kids something fun to do, and the second is to teach them a few things about the game that they can take with them.”

Campers cycle through a variety of daily exercises designed to improve their baseball skills throughout the course of the four-day camp. During these times, many campers may have wondered why they were spending a summer morning doing often-tedious drills.

“If you ask them, I’m sure they’ll tell you that the skill drills aren’t their favorite thing, but they understand that it’s important,” Hill said.

Players end their sessions with hour-long scrimmages, which Hill said is their favorite part of the three-hour days.

Some players do recognize the value of the drills, though, because it gives them the chance to work on the finer points of their game.

“The coaches really work on your swing,” said 14-year-old Adam Rock as he prepared to practice driving a ball off a tee.

Campers were exposed to coaching tools and methods they wouldn’t usually be able to access in a little-league environment.

“Getting videoed for hitting was great,” said 14-year-old Jordan Dreiling.

Some campers were also getting ready for their future baseball careers at Free State.

Jeffery Ahle, 11, prepares to bunt while other campers wait their turn Thursday at the Free State High School baseball camp.

“It’s great to get noticed by the coaches,” said Rock, who plans to attend Free State the year after next.

Hill didn’t see the camp as a place to identify future Free State players, but sometimes it has served that purpose over the years.

“Naturally you’ll run across a few youngsters that are headed your way, and it’s nice to get to know them before they come,” he said.

Because the camp is for younger players, the instructors, who are mostly Free State coaches and local high-school players, tried to make sure they taught as many aspects of the game as possible.

“We focus on position drills,” Hill said. “For a 9-year-old to say he’s a shortstop and he will always be a shortstop is rather short-sighted.”

Players also learned more than just how to hit and field. They learned to be aware of little details like not walking across a field when it is wet, to maintain the field’s condition.

“We teach them a little about the etiquette of the game,” Hill said, “which is something young kids don’t understand sometimes.”

These things may not be obvious to everyone, but they are invaluable for their baseball futures.

“They learn how to support teammates instead of antagonizing teammates,” Hill said.

There was also time devoted to stressing the importance of warming up before playing to avoid injuries.

“We teach them how to run, stretch and throw,” Hill said. “We teach them the proper way to prepare.”

The camp included an Olympics, where players compete to see who can hit the farthest off a tee, throw for the most distance, and of course, who can throw the hardest.

For parents like Amy Cleavinger, whose son Garrett plays for a 10-and-under team in Baldwin, the camp was a good way to help foster her son’s growing passion for the game.

“They just want to work on everything they can, and they’re in the middle of the season right now,” she said.