Mega Sports Camp a smash hit in Royal

ROYAL CITY - The Mega Sports Camp, which was held from June 5-12 on athletic fields at Royal Schools, was a great success, Director Ben Orth declared.

Nearly 200 boys and girls from Royal City participated in the fun-filled Mega Sports Camp. Boys and girls, ages 5-12, worked on skills and drills in 10 different sports, including soccer, basketball, football, volleyball, baseball, softball, gymnastics, wrestling, dance, and track and field.

"One aspect of the Mega Sports week that is pretty exciting is that kids get exposure to a wide variety of sports," Orth said.

Co-Director Lyndsy Roberts added: "It is always fun to have a camper come up to me at the end of the day and say that they really enjoyed a sport that they had never tried before."

In addition to working on sport specific skills, campers also got to hear motivational talks each day at snack time on topics such as courage, attitude, sportsmanship, and playing with purpose.

"The kids at camp definitely did an amazing job all week,"Orth said. "They worked hard at the skills, encouraged each other and, most importantly, had a lot of fun."

More than 35 middle school and high school student-athletes from Royal volunteered their time as camp counselors. These counselors were representative of all the different sports and helped campers learn and practice the drills associated with each sport.

Orth said their participation was highly appreciated, calling them a "unique aspect" of the camp.

"In addition to providing kids a fun week at camp, another important goal of ours was to help develop our camp counselors to become the next generation of leaders," Orth said. "We were blessed with fantastic student leaders who are not only successful athletes but are also poised to be little league coaches and volunteers down the road."

On Friday, the final day of the Mega Sports Camp, campers competed in a fun and spirited Camp Olympics challenge and then had a blast getting wet during the Wacky Water game activities.

"I think the students had as much fun getting the counselors wet as they did each other," Orth said.

According to Orth, Mega Sports Camp owes many thanks to the Royal Boosters, Harvest Foods of Royal City and Norwest Ingredients for their generous support.

"There are so many supportive people in our community who help make activities like Mega Sports Camp a reality for our kids to enjoy and we truly thank them," Orth said. "If your son or daughter happened to miss this year's camp, the Mega Sports week will be held in June again next year, and the staff hopes to see you there."