Never did Tipp boys soccer coach Joel Slyman think so many of the area’s youth would turn out for a soccer camp that has been non-existent for so many years. There were so many kids, they were unable to hold the final day that was scheduled at the stadium—in fact, they had to have all three days at Kyle Park using multiple fields.

Well over 200 area youth turned out for what was a phenomenal camp last week. Both the Tipp High School boys and girls teams hosted the camp, which included youngsters from around the Tipp City community.

“I met with Katie Berbach (from the Tipp Youth Soccer program), and we talked about bringing back the youth camp that we did 10-15 years ago and haven’t done it since,” Slyman said. His staff, along with the girls’ staff led by head coach Brent Palmer, were involved in this event. “We wanted to give back to the community, and they came out in droves with the number of kids we had this week.”

“We weren’t sure how many we were going to get and started with 50-60 being a good number, then about a month ago, Katie emailed us and told us we were at 150. We showed up on the first day to 212 campers ages 5-11. It goes to show that our community loves soccer and our kids have done such a nice job running the camp and interacted with each age group. I am proud of our guys for how we conducted ourselves this week.”

Slyman was excited to have both teams working together on this camp.

“We don’t always get to see the girls play because we both are so focused on our own season. It is great for the program, and it shows that Tipp soccer is alive and well.”

During the week, the youth learned dribbling on the first night, footwork and finishing on the second night. On the final night of camp, they let the kids play.

“We want the kids to leave the camp with a little bit of soccer knowledge and skill, but most importantly, we wanted them to leave having a good time because our program made that happen.”

The Tipp boys are hosting their team camp this week, and the girls had their camp in June. Both clubs are preparing for the start of practice, which is 15 days from now.