This camp's not for kids

The Baltimore Sun

Two of the players portrayed "mud monsters," chasing the others as they ran around the field and kicked soccer balls. Whenever someone was tagged by a mud monster, that person picked up the ball, held it over his head and stood frozen until another player kicked a ball between his legs.

The players were engaged in one of several games they learned in a residential soccer camp for adults at McDaniel College in Westminster.

The camp is offered by Soccer Academy Inc., a year-round educational soccer program started in 1982 by John Ellis to provide opportunities for young players to learn, play and enjoy soccer.

The adult program was added about 12 years ago, and is the only co-ed residential soccer program offered to adults in the United States, said Paul Ellis, president of the Soccer Academy and son of the founder, John.

"We started the program to offer adults a way to improve their soccer playing skills," Ellis said.

This year about 40 adults -- ages 21 and older -- participated in the program that costs $575. At the same time, about 95 children attended kids camps, which cost $525 for six days.

A day at the adult camp starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 8:30 p.m. Lessons include ball skills, creativity with the ball, advanced passing and shooting, one-on-one exercises and principles of attack and defense, Ellis said.

The camp is taught by several coaches, including Linda Hamilton, who was a member of the team that won the World Cup in 1991, having played for the Women's U.S. National Soccer Team from 1987 to 1995. Hamilton coached last year and liked the dynamics of teaching adults, she said.

"Teaching adults has its own unique quality to it," Hamilton said. "It requires a different mentality."

For starters, she incorporates things that she learned while playing for the national team into her lessons, she said. To do this, she sits out scrimmage games.

"I am too competitive to play," said Hamilton, 38. "I can't watch the players and play my best. So I let the younger people -- who haven't had seven knee surgeries -- play, and I watch."

The players voiced a variety of reasons for participating in the camp.

Christina Connor, 39, of Seattle never attended a soccer camp as a child, she said. When she started playing on an adult team last year, the other players talked about attending soccer camps in their youth, she said.

Although she wasn't sure what to expect, Connor said she was excited.

"On the first day, I got up at 6:30 a.m. and started practicing drills," she said. "I just couldn't wait to start."

Fran Corniel, 35, of Cambridge, Mass., wanted to learn more than she had learned in a soccer league, she said.

"When you play in a league, no one teaches you anything," Corniel said. "You just have to get out there and play. But here, I've learned things like how to hit the ball, and where to hit the ball."

John Weiss has been coming to the camp from Columbus, Ohio, for the past 11 years. He enjoys the intensity of the program, he said.

"I enjoy pain," said the 47-year-old, who started playing soccer about 16 years ago. "When I come here, I get to live the game for six days. We learn from people who know the game, and they know how to make it fun."

Games such as Sharks and Minnows are played at the camp, said Tom Armstrong, a coach from Stafford, Va. To play the game, players have to run around and try to avoid being hit by a soccer ball. When players get hit, they join the sharks and throw the balls at others, he said.

But the camp is about more than the games, he said.

"Soccer is expanding," Armstrong, 54, said. "More people are playing. So this camp gives me a chance to coach at a more advanced level. I get to teach the players high-level, high-speed skills. But we try to mix the skills into fun games."

On a recent morning, Armstrong was teaching ball control skills. "To have good ball control, you have to watch the ball," he told the players. "Then you have to relax."

As the players worked on ball control drills, Armstrong walked to each group and critiqued them. As the day went on, the training intensified, Weiss said.

Although the coaches ran him ragged, Weiss, who is known as Baggio at camp, enjoyed the challenges. One of the most difficult things he has learned at the camp is the Jamaican box, he said.

"The Jamaican box is brutality in motion," Weiss said. "It's a drill. If you dare partake, you're going to pay."

James Tarpoff, also from Columbus, Ohio, said he attended the camp for the first time at Weiss' insistence.

"I am beat to death, let there be no doubt," said Tarpoff, who works as a computer programmer. "When I leave here, if I can't walk for a month, I won't ever do it again. If I can walk, then I might be back. It's a cheap vacation."

Daniel Young, 24, of Celebration, Fla., was at the camp for the second time, he said. During the last two years, he has learned different ways to pass the ball and to execute the skills he has learned, he said.

"A lot of the fun at this camp is being able to play with the high-level players," Young said.

Liz Porter, a clinical social worker from Washington, attended the camp for the fifth time to get formal instruction in the sport, she said.

"We're getting a lot of good information out here. The hard part is learning how to apply it," said Porter, 39. "I really enjoy the evening scrimmage."

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