If you’re going to host a basketball skills camp, it’s smart to bring in guest instructors that have, well … skills.

Consider Hayden Hamby overqualified.

Hamby, a former West Morgan superstar and current Purdue senior, spent her Thursday morning in the Cullman High gymnasium passing on her knowledge of the game to almost 50 first- through eighth-grade girls at the second annual Lady Bearcat Basketball Camp.

One quick look back at Hamby’s high school rèsumè is all it takes to see why she was invited by Cullman junior varsity girls coach and varsity girls assistant Jessica Posey. The 5-foot-7 guard exited West Morgan with 1,170 points her senior year to raise her career total to 4,485. Those eye-popping stats rank second and third, respectively, in state history.

Furthermore, Hamby was named Miss Basketball and Gatorade Alabama Girls Basketball Player of the Year as a junior and capped off her five seasons with the Lady Rebels with a state-record 1,207 successful free throws.

Hamby’s last 20 prep points came in a 50-47 loss to Holly Pond just down the road at the 2012 Northwest Regional Tournament. She didn’t let those memories keep her from returning to Cullman County for a good cause nearly three and a half years later.

“I was really excited when they asked me to come,” Hamby said. “I mean, this is how I learned to play basketball, in basketball camps. Some of the drills you learn at this age you’re going to carry over and keep running as you get older.”

Hamby’s particular station during the tail end of Thursday’s session was ball handling. The campers kept up with her basic dribbling techniques but became a bit more wide-eyed when she started going between the legs and incorporating two basketballs into the equation.

Several young ladies were left scrambling as the difficulty increased. It didn’t disappoint Hamby in the slightest.

At least they were trying.

“Some of them gave me a look like, ‘I can’t do that,’” she said. “But I bet some of them will be practicing those drills and they’ll be able to do them pretty soon.”

Try as they might, none of the camp staff was able to beat Hamby at an entertaining game of gotcha/knockout. Anna Evans was the last Cullman varsity player left standing but finally missed a free throw and paid the price.

Even in a friendly contest, Hamby’s usual goal didn’t change.

“Everything I do, I want to win,” she said. “I try to tone it down when I’m around younger kids, but I’m competitive by nature.”

Transitioning from Class 3A to Big 10 basketball was admittedly hard — “it becomes almost more like a job” — but has still been an overwhelmingly positive experience for Hamby. Her playing time and production have increased season by season, a trend she’ll look to continue in her final go-round this winter.

First, Hamby wants to complete the circle by living up to her senior status and teaching the incoming underclassmen “how things are done” at a proud program like Purdue.

“There have been lots of memories of, ‘Hey, I’m in college, not a small town anymore,’” she said. “The first time running out of the tunnel at Mackey Arena, that was just something I’ll never forget.”

Bringing somebody to camp with that kind of experience at the college and high school levels was a boon for Posey. The Cullman coach got everything she bargained for — and then some — when Hamby answered a question regarding her favorite move by perfectly executing a dribble and step-back jumper.

Posey had tried to show the varsity squad the exact same shot the day before.

“I was like, ‘OK, that’s what I meant for you to do,’” Posey said with a laugh. “She was teaching them things that I never could. The girls love it. They look forward to seeing who the big name is every year.”

Though Hamby was this year’s “big name,” other instructors throughout the week included Amber Jones, a UAB alum playing professionally in Romania, and recent Cullman grad Baylee Johnson, who’s bound for UAH.

Last year’s featured guest was Jasmine Jones, a Bob Jones product and forward at Tennessee.

“It’s been a great camp,” Posey said. “We’ve had a lot of success with it. Everybody’s improving and showing interest in basketball, and that’s what I want. It’s just trying to instill that love for basketball.”

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Overtime

To put Hamby’s 4,485 career high school points in perspective, Johnson is Cullman’s all-time girls leader with 1,701. Cold Springs’ Georgia Myrex, Cullman County’s all-time leader, had 2,379.