To say that youth summer sports camps are growing by leaps and bounds would be an understatement.
More accurate would be to say that they`re growing by flying high basketball dunk shots and ”Hail Mary” football passes.
Consider that most local camps started less than 10 years ago, some with an enrollment of 100 or so kids for a one-week camp.
Many of these camps have at least tripled by now in both attendance and in the number of weeks they run, and some, like Midwest Sports of Hinsdale, have to turn away applicants in some of their programs.
”We had to turn about 800 people away this spring,” said Tom Haberkorn, owner of Midwest Sports, which runs full-time sports training camps throughout the year at a facility in Indiana.
As it was, 1,500 people did go through this particular camp, he said.
Haberkorn has his own ideas on why sports camps are so popular.
”Kids have to concentrate in one or two areas to become good enough to compete these days. More and more parents are seeking professional training for their children so that the kids may become one of the ones that makes the high school team or goes on to sports in college,” he said.
The other reason the camps have become so popular is that they are fun, he said.
Gloria Balague, sports psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that kids having fun at summer camps is a good thing.
”If one of the main goals remains for the kids to have fun and enjoy themselves, these camps are a good idea. Improvement is important, of course, but as long as it remains fun, it`s okay,” she said.
Plus, a summer sports camp can have the added bonus of increasing a child`s self-esteem, said Balague.
”Sports are an activity that kids really like, and if the camps are presented right, the kids derive a lot of their own self-esteem at that age from athletics, so anything that gives them a chance to get better is relevant,” she said.
Most important, however, is that the kids want to go in the first place and that parents are not just sending them to eat up time in the summer or to fulfill some goals that the parent himself has set, said Clifton Saper, a psychologist who specializes in treating children and families and gives a seminar throughout the Chicago area called ”Summer Survival Guide for Parents of Teenagers.”
”The kid`s input as to what he would enjoy has to be listened to, not just because you as a parent think it would help him get better. Summer has to be a time for kids to be able to relax and have fun,” said Saper.
And on that note, Jerry Barton, varsity football coach at Glenbard South, Glen Ellyn, wishes that kids didn`t have to go to summer camps and could just mess around, have fun and relax over the summer.
But Barton finds himself running camps all summer long, in spite of the fact that he would prefer not to.
”I think it`s too bad that all these summer camps are so prevalent,”
said Barton. ”Twenty years ago, kids went out and played. They don`t have a chance to do that anymore.
”You don`t ever see a pickup game of baseball or basketball anymore. It`s always organized.”
While Barton decries the plethora of camps, he said he feels he must run a summer football camp at Glenbard South because if he didn`t, his kids would fall behind all the other schools that are running camps.
Two students from Wheaton Warrenville South High School have differing views on summer sports camps. Both attended camps at national wrestling competitions this summer.
Mark Schaefer, a junior, said he likes the camps because they are fun.
”It makes you a better athlete and you learn a lot,” he said.
But Randy Divelbiss, a sophomore, said he attends the camps because he knows he must to be able to compete, although he doesn`t always enjoy them.
”It`s hard work,” he said. ”You have to run all the time, practice three times a day and it gets boring after a few days. I don`t like to do it, but it pays off.”
In Du Page, there are all kinds of camps for kids to choose from during the summer months.
One of the oldest camps in the area is probably the Crusader Basketball Camp at Wheaton College, started 26 years ago with 25 kids for a one-week camp that covered several sports. The camp has changed to concentrate on basketball but has also grown to three one-week sessions with as many as 130 kids a week. ”The attendance has been pretty much self-sustaining,” said Lee Pfund, former director and founder of the camp, who explains that siblings often follow after their brothers, or kids find out about the camp through word-of- mouth from other team members.
But what makes the Crusader camp different from other camps is its emphasis on sportsmanship and Christian development as well as physical growth.
”Our slogan is `Character Through Sports,` and that is related to scripture,” said Pfund, who is retired from the camp. ”It`s a big part of our having young people here.”
Another camp that has grown tremendously since its inception is the Doug Bruno Girls Basketball Camp, held at Illinois Benedictine College in Lisle.
”I believe we are the oldest resident girls camp in the (Chicagoland)
area, and largest private girls camp in the county,” said David Rosengard, camp administrative director.
He started the camp along with Doug Bruno, head coach of the DePaul women`s basketball team, in 1980 when they noticed a need for a camp for girls like the ones the boys had access to. And the response, they say, has proved that there was, indeed, a need, or least a desire, for such a camp.
”Two thousand young ladies come through our camp every summer,” said Rosengard. ”They are primarily from the Chicagoland area, but some kids come from as far away as Florida, the state of Washington and Hong Kong. Some have gone on to star as pro players in Europe; others have popped up as head coaches at high schools and colleges.”
Celebrity camps are also popular, obviously because kids hope to get a chance to rub elbows with some of their heroes. Elmhurst College has had a basketball camp featuring Michael Jordan for the last four years. This year, the camp will feature Bulls stars Scottie Pippen and B.J. Armstrong.
But do the kids actually get to spend time with their heroes, or is featuring stars just a marketing tool to attract enrollment for the camp?
”They show up for a part of every day,” said Scott Trost, assistant basketball coach at Elmhurst College. ”They will come in the morning and lecture and may come in the afternoon and talk and have a talk-back session in the evening. They do make a concerted effort to attend. They try and be here as much as they can, even though they may also have other commitments.”
Most kids do come to the camps to learn fundamentals of basketball, said Trost. Getting to see their heroes in person is just an added bonus, he said. But parents will pay more for a camp like this. While many of the resident camps seemed to average about $250 a week, the celebrity camp at Elmhurst College is $380 for a week, and Trost admits the extra cost is for the stars to appear.
Another camp that offers a closer-to-home role model for kids is the weekend parent-child camps put on by Haberkorn`s Midwest Sports.
”I wanted to have a great learning experience for parents and children,” said Haberkorn. ”This fast-paced world we live in with moms and dads working, we don`t spend enough time with our kids.”
The goals of these camps is threefold, said Haberkorn. First of all, they are meant to be fun, for parent and children to spend a fun weekend together. Secondly, they serve as a training program so that adults can learn to be better instructors, to give them tips on how to teach sports to their children. Thirdly, said Haberkorn, the children, of course, learn skills too. ”Kids should try and be the best they can be for themselves, so they can enjoy the sport and be a better team member,” said Haberkorn. ”That`s what camp is all about-helping kids to be the best they can be.”
