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1997 Soccer Camp Review

My son Justin has been playing soccer since he was five. Last summer, we decided to let him attend the Gamblers' summer camp. The team held three sessions at Lafreniere Park, which is where my son's league is located. For boys and girls under 10, the camp was a half-day session, from 9:00am to 12:00pm. The camp had before- and after-camp care, so we were able to drop him off as early as 8:00am.

The counselors for the camp were players from the team and college players. Many of the professional players live in the New Orleans area and coach high school and club teams year-round, so there's a bunch of qualified guys around who like to work with kids. The kids were divided up by age amongst the counselors so that each one had 15-20 kids at a time.

The morning sessions began with stretching exercises. The players took extra time on this with the youngsters, since they don't take stretching very seriously just yet. After stretching they worked on basic skills--ball handling, passing, feints, etc. These skill drills were broken down into 30-40 minute activity periods. Justin is a goalkeeper, so he went off with all the other keepers and one of the Gamblers' keepers for a couple of those activity periods to work on goalkeeping skills.

Since it's awfully hot even in the morning, the counselors gave the kids regular rest/water breaks. They had several 25-gal coolers with both sports drinks and cold water daily. There were a couple of large outdoor tent shelters set up in case it began raining. Fortunately, the weather was just fine all week. The morning session wrapped up around noon. The older kids staying for the afternoon session ate lunch (each camper had to bring their own lunch), and the half-day campers were picked up around the main tent.

I found out after the camp started that they probably would have let Justin stay for the afternoon session, since he was an expreienced player, but we had already made arrangements for the half-day situation. The afternoon session consisted of team tactics and strategy. One of the U-10 travel teams in Justin's league all went the same week, so they got to stay together in the afternoon session and work as a team. That offer is open to any team that can get 6+ kids to go the same week.

Justin's experience at soccer camp was excellent. At the end of the week, the team gave each camper a pair of tickets to that weekend's match (each camper also received a ball and a t-shirt as part of the registration fee). We went that weekend and Justin got to be a ball boy. He enjoyed that so much that he continued to be a ball boy for the rest of the season. He can't wait to run down balls for the two MLS teams, and to get back to soccer camp this summer. I'm going to have a big decision to make, since he wants to go to more than one week, and the cost is higher than day camp at his school. Would that all decisions in life were this tough. :-)