Summer camps are for everyone

As if school isn’t enough, students continue their academic and athletic lives into the summer months. More and more students are ending up in some sort of summer camp. With sports camps, journalism camp, music camps, and for some teachers, summer school. How do students see themselves coming and going during the summer?

            All of the camps that students attend during June and July try to help boost winning sports records. “Having other coaches show the guys new techniques and different ways to execute those skills really help our football program,” Mick Suey, Assistant Football Coach said.

            Many opportunities exist for all athletes to build their athletic abilities. Some of linemen on the football team attended a camp at Doane College. The backs and receivers attended a Seven-on-Seven Camp at UNL also. “It was fun. We scrimmaged other teams, some that were from other classes. The camp was a good experience for me and the other guys that went along,” Devan Schmidt ’09 said. A Jeff Camp was also hosted the last week in July that was offered to high school and junior high athletes involved in football.

            Football was not the only sport that had camps this summer. Volleyball members hit the camp scene too. One of which was Fairbury’s own volleyball camp. This camp was available to girls not only in high school, but also girls entering grades 3 to 8. The third through fifth grades and the sixth through eighth grades attended at different times during the month of June. High schoolers went during July. Fairbury’s was not the only camp available for the athletes; there were hundreds available. “We have a young team, but we also have the opportunity to have a great team and season. The team really needs to work on their defense and then we have the potential to be amazing,” Head Coach Kristi Peterson said.

            The softball players were involved in camps too, not only that but most of them also played summer softball. “Our team went to nationals in Kansas City this summer,” said Sylvia Buchli ‘09. “Marisa and I went to a Recruiting Camp this summer at Gretna. There were a lot of big colleges there like Creighton.”

            Think ahead in the school year, there were also basketball camps for both boys and girls. Both teams played in leagues at Beatrice High School during the months of June and July. “There were 22 guys that signed up to play in the league at Beatrice. We were able to split them up into a Junior Varsity and a Varsity. The prospects look really good for the 08-09 season of basketball,” Boys Basketball Head Coach Rick Bell said.

            In a non-sport category, there was journalism camp that six staff members attended in Lincoln at UNL. “Students spent four days learning publication design, photography and journalistic writing,” Diane Schutt, journalism instructor said.

 Teachers also spent part of the summer attending classes and workshops. Some went back to school to further their educations. English teacher Jacki Papstein earned more hours toward a master’s degree. “It was the most grueling time. I was constantly studying and doing homework for my classes,” she said.

           By: Latisha Osborne

Fairbury Jr/Sr High School
1501 9th Street
Fairbury, NE 68352
(402)-729-6116 ext 106