‘Tis the season for summer camps. NAIT Athletics is happy to be bringing back five of their sports camps, which are being led by nationally recognized coaches and players.
NAIT’s summer camps not only offer a chance for players to learn new concepts in their sport, but they also have a chance at contributing to NAIT varsity teams with revenue income.
“Our teams get the revenue from all of these camps to help them offset non-conference travel as well as any program enhancements, such as additional coaching, strength and conditioning, or physio,” said NAIT’s Atheltic’s Manager, Jordan Richey.
Registration for each camp is open until the day before their respective start date, with the first camp begining August 3. Badminton will start these camps off with a smash. It is one of the only badminton camps in the city available to players that aren’t a part of a club, such as The Royal Glenora.
“There’s not a lot of opportunities to do badminton camps in the city, so every year fills up fast and they get to be instructed by our coaches as well as our players, who are mostly national calibre players. So they get an unbelievable opportunity to get some badminton basics,” said Richey.
Volleyball, basketball (excluding women’s basketball), hockey and a combo camp (volleyball, basketball mix) are also available. Although volleyball and basketball are marketed as ‘Elite Camps,’ head coach of the women’s basketball team, Todd Warnick, wants to reassure players that they don’t need to be ‘elite’ players to join the camps.
“It’s less about trying to find ‘elite’ athletes and more about trying to understand how much fun it can be to train in an elite way. Really it’s about fun in competition and [it] gives [athletes] a chance to come in and learn the game in a really [great] environment,” said Warnick.
With facilities including NAIT’s swimming pool and soccer field being closed, coaches have had to plan new ways to keep these summer camps interesting.
“Our coaches have had to be very creative with space so they’re using different areas around NAIT such as the grassy area CAT, the Shaw Theatre, and the Dow Theatre to show movies of the sport or something like that, just to kind of break it up a bit,” said Richey.
For further details and to register for a camp, players can visit NAIT’s website. Select information on the camps is provided below:
Badminton Camp:
August 3-6, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Ages 10-17
NAIT Ooks Elite Men’s Basketball Camp:
August 9-13, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Ages 13-17
NAIT Ooks Elite Volleyball Camp:
August 16-20, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Ages 15-18
Basketball/Volleyball Combo Camp:
August 23-27, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Ages 10-15
Hockey Camps:
August 9-September 1 (4 weeks of camps available), 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., U9 – U13
