(To view photos, please see our E-edition)

For the third straight year, the West Jefferson Central Ashe Optimist Club hosted the Tri-Star Basketball Challenge at Ashe County High School. On Wednesday evening, Gwyn Campbell, president of the Optimist Club directed the Tri-Star Challenge, which featured competitions in passing, dribbling, and shooting. The Tri-Star Challenge is commonly compared to the Punt, Pass, and Kick Football Challenge.

The Tri-Star Challenge was held Wednesday in between sessions of the High Country Hoops Camp. The High Country Hoops Camp was one of three camps offered last week, with the Player’s Edge Soccer Camp being held at Blue Ridge Elementary, and the Spikes-R-Us Volleyball Camp at Ashe County Middle School.

At the high school, director Marc Payne hosted two sessions of the High Country Hoops Camp, a session for third through sixth grade boys, and then a session for seventh through tenth graders.

At Blue Ridge, the Player’s Edge Soccer Camps, a three-session camp, held it’s first session in the morning for first through third graders. The Player’s Edge Soccer Camps continue this week with camps for third through sixth graders, and seventh and eighth graders. Mike Eldreth directs the Player’s Edge Soccer Camps.

At the middle school, for the second summer in a row, the Spikes-R-Us Volleyball Camp was held. Paula Carlton and Jill Crain directed the volleyball camp.

On Wednesday, in between sessions of the High Country Hoops Camp, the Tri-Star Challenge was held. With three different age groups, 8-9 year olds, 10-11 year olds, 12-13 year olds, children of a wide range of age groups were able to compete in the events. On Thursday, the winners of the events were presented at the conclusion of the High Country Hoops Camp. The winners were determined by combing scores from the shooting, dribbling, and passing competitions.

The winners in the 8-9 year old division was Malachi Poe with third place, Adrian Winterton with second place, and Jude Price captured first place in the competition. In the 10-11 age group, Evan Owen won third place, Bradley Lewis and Matthew Lee tied for second place, and Matthew Ball won first place. In the oldest age group, the 12-13 year old division, Evan Walker won third place, Josh Pennington finished in second place, and Zach Lawrence claimed the number one spot.

Summer camps continue this week with soccer being the main focus. The other two sessions of the Player’s Edge Soccer Camps at Blue Ridge, and Richard Gill is directing the High Country Soccer Camp at Ashe County High School.