Soccer players looking to improve their skill level while getting a taste of the college experience, listen up: the Notre Dame women’s soccer camps are the place for you.

This summer, the Notre Dame women’s program is offering a great experience for female players from ages 10 to 18 who want to grow as soccer players and gain an invaluable student athlete experience.

Summer camps are always a valuable tool for young athletes and can help them develop both mentally and physically. But they’re also much more. At Notre Dame, players who attend will have the opportunity to live in college dormitories and develop relationships with their peers.

Randy Waldrum, the Notre Dame women’s head coach, speaks very fondly of past camps, stating that they have all been very eventful and memorable. He described one camp from several years ago where a 10-year-old girl caught the attention of the entire camp.

“During a short water break, this young girl started to juggle a soccer ball,” Waldrum said. “She juggled the ball well over one thousand times without stopping. It wasn’t a huge deal at first, but it just grew and grew as everyone started to watch her juggling, and by the end it was a spectacular scene as all of the camp, coaches and players, gathered to watch.

“There are stories for each year.”

The Notre Dame women’s soccer camps are not all fun and games, though.

“One thing that we want to do is make sure that the camps are productive and that we are not just babysitting for a week,” Waldrum said.

Players can expect a full week of soccer, all day and all night. The camps start with some light soccer games in order to evaluate the abilities of each player. From there, they are separated into training groups based on their age and ability and the real training will begin.

In Waldrum’s first 7-8 years as head coach, the Notre Dame program discovered 21 players through their soccer camps. This speaks to the real opportunity to be showcased that each gathering offers a player.

Notre Dame will be offering three exciting women’s soccer camp sessions: June 13-17; July 13-17 and July 18-22. For more information about the camps or to register, visit www.youthsports.nd.edu/