SILER CITY — What do you get when you gather a cohort of elementary and middle schoolers on a soccer field in the sweltering heat during their summer break?
A four-day camp featuring ice-cold popsicles, lots of water breaks and — in between the laughs at kids’ outlandish quotes — a few soccer drills here and there.
Jordan-Matthews hosted the first of its five scheduled youth summer sports camps last week in the form of a four-day soccer camp from June 28 to July 1, which featured nearly 20 students ranging from rising 1st graders to rising 9th graders.
The program, the first of its kind for the Jets, took place on the school’s soccer field, with four makeshift goals — each created by spreading two vertical posts a short width apart — set up in pairs across from each other for scrimmages, along with cones scattered across the field in different spots for drills.
Each camp day was broken into one of four fundamental themes: passing, goalkeeping, shooting, dribbling.
“With the little ones, just getting them to know what passing, goalkeeping, shooting and dribbling were was a big success,” Chip Millard, the camp’s head counselor and J-M’s head women’s soccer coach, said on the camp’s final day last Thursday. “I think goalkeeping was the biggest hit because they could use their hands and, for little kids, they’re still used to that. It’s easier.”
Most of the elementary-aged campers were unfamiliar with soccer heading into last week, the camp being their first time stepping on a pitch and kicking the ball around.
For Millard, who was running a camp for the first time in his career, this acted as an opportunity to grow the game of soccer and get kids started at an early age.
“Each one of these little ones said they had never played soccer before, so for them to be able to do anything — or what you even saw today — I was pretty impressed that they could do it,” Millard said. “And to get them interested (in soccer) in 3rd grade is a lot better than getting them interested in 8th grade.”
Along with Millard and J-M assistant women’s soccer coach Lupe Perez, the camp had six volunteer counselors who’ve had experience playing soccer with the Jets, including rising juniors Emma Wieber and Maggie Thornton and rising senior Carlos Rojas.
The campers were split into three teams: the Earthquakes, the Galaxy and the Red Bulls. The counselors led each team, taking them through drills, assisting them in scrimmages and helping them come up with mascot-themed team cheers.
Instead of taking time to enjoy their summer break by themselves, the counselors opted to help prepare the next generation of soccer players in Chatham through the camp.
“I enjoy being with the kids, I love playing soccer, so it’s just been a really fun break from, you know, life I guess,” Wieber said. “It’s just been really nice to give back to the community and get more people interested in soccer because I love the sport.”
“I asked nicely and those were the six counselors that said they would do it, that they would spend this week without pay and volunteer their time,” Millard added. “They’re great leaders and were wanting to be here and really enjoy it, so it worked out well.”
In addition to the younger kids, four middle schoolers attended the camp, too, who had the opportunity to glean info and experience from the counselors, of which most are now veterans of high school soccer.
For them, it was less about learning the fundamentals and more about honing their skills for their (likely) varsity soccer careers down the line.
“The older ones had experience, but I think they all gained confidence,” Millard said. “I remember being that age and getting to play with older high school-aged kids and it just gave me a lot of confidence and we all got better.”
On Thursday, the day began at 8:30 a.m. with dribbling drills, where the campers learned how to move with the ball by running around a circle made of cones and dribbling the ball through them as best they could.
Then, after 15 minutes or so, a water break.
Next, the elementary and middle school groups broke up and the younger kids played a game in which most of them had to dribble the ball from one line to the other without losing control of it, but the kicker was that Millard and a couple of counselors and campers were standing in their way, ready to knock the ball back to where they started.
Then, after 15 minutes of action, another water break.
The consistent stoppages for water and chit-chat came partially because of the heat and partially because of, well, short attention spans.
“I remember being that age and there’s just no focus when you’re in 2nd grade, right?” Millard said with a laugh. “I have a really good friend that has been a high school basketball coach for 20 years … and he said, ‘Listen, a third of them don’t want to be there, a third of them just want to have fun and the other third, you might teach some soccer to.’ That made me feel better.”
As time was winding down on the last day of camp, the campers had one thing on their minds: popsicles.
After the counselors led the campers in a cheer about said popsicles, everyone migrated to the concession stand, where they stood in the shade and enjoyed the perfect treat for a hot summer day.
While the camp didn’t have dozens of enrollees — like the more than 60 athletes already signed up for J-M’s baseball/softball camp later this month — Millard seemed happy with the turnout.
“Since I’m the girl’s coach, hopefully some of the little girls (in the camp) decide (playing soccer) is what they want to do and then when they get to J-M — or one of the other schools — they’ll be a new player for us,” Millard said. “So this is well worth my time, because, hopefully, I’m investing in the future of our team.”
Reporter Victor Hensley can be reached at vhensley@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @Frezeal33.