Gustie Co-Ed Youth Camp 2015

Wow. What a fantastic week at our Gustie Co-Ed Youth Camp.  The weather was beautiful, the campers were talented, and the staff was full of energy, all making our 2015 Co-Ed Youth Camp one to remember.  Make sure you read until the end to get the link to our camp Flickr page!

We had many returning faces along with a whole crew of new campers this year which made for a fun, hard working dynamic.

Take a look at our impressive coaching staff: 

Head Coaches: Laura Burnett-Kurie (Head Women's Soccer Coach at Gustavus), Benton Frayne (Assistant Women's Soccer Coach at Gustavus and DOC at Mankato United), Armando Oster (Club coach at Eden Prairie and Edina SC, Coach at East Ridge High School), Maggie Lane (Gustavus Alum '13, Head JV Coach at Marshall High School).

Assistant Coaches (current players at Gustavus): Anna Basil '16, Rachel Spiering '17, Ellyn Adelmann '18, Josie Mazzone '18, Emily Odermatt '18


Breaking Down the Soccer: 

SUNDAY: With the camp starting on Father's Day, Sunday started off with campus tours, ice breaker games and dinner at the coveted Evelyn Young Dining Hall.  The evening session kicked off with a 3v3 tournament followed by full sided games before an evening of pizza and getting to know our friends.

Evening Games! 

Combination Play

MONDAY: The morning session focused on combination play building to goal in small training groups led by a head coach and assistant coach.  After the morning session, the camp enjoyed free time where they were encouraged to swim in the pool!
The afternoon session focused on 1v1's, 2v1's, 2v2's (attacking and defending) with the entire camp coming together for relay races lead by Benton Frayne.  For the evening, we started out with 5v5 games before once again finishing with full sided competition.  The evening activity was to watch the USA Women's Soccer team play Colombia in the knock-out stage of the World Cup!

The Crew watching USA vs. Colombia in the World Cup!

TUESDAY: We started out with a camp game of Cream and Crackers before splitting up into our

Cream and Crackers

small training groups where we focused on Wide Play and Crossing and Finishing.  Again, the campers found themselves with free time where many enjoyed the free swim at the pool.  In the afternoon, we had a "Recovery" session where we played the camp favorites: Touch Ladders, Burger Ball and Touch Post followed by a camp game of World Cup!

Campfire with S'Mores

During the evening, we build to 8v8 games followed by full-field scrimmages before enjoying a campfire with S'Mores.  We had a Youth Camp record of 9 S'Mores consumed!





WEDNESDAY: Wednesday morning was all about our Street Soccer Competition where we played six 4v4 games with the teams changing between each game!  We capped off our morning session with our awards ceremony for our week long competitions!

Street Soccer Set Up!

Celebrating with their favorite Staff!

Camp Competitions Explained: 

With our camp theme of the Women's World Cup we had several competitions throughout the week.

To start we had our Theme Day competition with Monday's theme: Favorite Color and Crazy Sock Day; Tuesday's theme: Jersey Day; Wednesday: Camp T-Shirt Day.  Here are the winners:

Favorite Color and Crazy Sock Day

Jersey Day!

Next up, we had Women's World Cup trivia questions!  We had so many campers know the answers to the trivia questions sometimes we had to ask up to four questions to narrow down the winners! Here are the ultimate winners:

 Finally, we had our ultimate competition called the WORLD CUP.  On Sunday evening, we randomly chose teams of two who were assigned to represent a country who were currently participating or had previously participated in a Women's World Cup.  Every night when we played small sided games and full-sided scrimmages the campers could earn points towards their country.  After Wednesdays street soccer competition the final numbers were calculated and we had our top three:

3rd Place

2nd Place

1st Place and World Cup Champions!

Summary:  

Overall, we had a FANTASTIC youth camp! For more pictures please check out our Gustavus Flickr account at:
 https://www.flickr.com/photos/30678334@N08/sets/72157655070165515/

We loved having every camper there and hope they will all come back next year.  Don't forget to invite your friends!

How to Play for Gustavus Women's Soccer

Prospective Athletes

Gustavus has been an established soccer program since the early 90s, winning numerous conference championships over the program's history.  Gustavus soccer is a program with a winning tradition and prides itself on the competitiveness of every match in the schedule. Those who are naturally competitive at heart strive well within our programs.

We continuously strive to push ourselves more and more every year by strengthening our schedule and challenging ourselves with difficult opponents.  Not only is the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletics Conference one of the most competitive and strongest conferences in the nation, we also test ourselves in our non-conference matches, facing some of the top teams in the nation as well.

Our program is also very well known for its sense of family that is created amongst the girls on the team.  Every member of the program, present, past, and future, are genuinely connected to each other as they create lifelong bonds with everybody on their team.  We work very hard to ensure that any prospective athletes will not only succeed athletically in our program, but also socially through strong relationships with their teammates who support each other both on and off of the field, all year round.

The Recruiting Process

Our goal through the recruiting process is to find the top-level players who fit in well with not only our soccer program here, but also with Gustavus in its entirety, making sure to ensure that all prospective athletes are set up to have the best college experience possible.  This is why a large portion of our recruiting process is based around building strong relationships with our future Gusties and providing them with as much information as possible about Gustavus academically, athletically and socially.  

Here are some steps to help you get started with your recruiting process at Gustavus: 

Fill out recruit questionnaire.  It's very important to first fill out the recruit questionnaire so that we are able to easily keep track of our contact with recruits as well as being sure to send any important information to them.  This also helps for setting up visits to campus.

Send in highlight film and/or game schedule.  Throughout the recruiting process, one thing that's very important is for us to be able to see a recruit play, whether it's through a highlight film or personally at a game.  If possible, we would love to see a recruit play 3 times in person or on film so that we can gain a strong sense of their skills and strengths in order to provide an honest evaluation as to how they can fit in with our program.  This evaluation and relationship we build will also help us understand how to help them become the best individuals they can be in all areas of their lives during their four years at Gustavus.

Make a visit to campus.  One of the best ways to begin getting a feel for Gustavus is to visit the campus and "experience" the school.  You can schedule a visit to campus by contacting the admissions office at (507)933-7676 and make an appointment which will include: a campus tour, meeting with an admissions counselor, a chat with the coaching staff and the opportunity to eat in our Nationally recognized dining hall.  

Schedule an overnight visit.  One of the great ways to ensure that Gustavus is a good fit for recruits is to have them come for an overnight visit with one of the girls on the team and really experience Gustavus from a student's perspective as well as get to know members of the team on a personal level.

Come see a game!  It's very helpful to get an idea of the level and speed of play by seeing it in person, as well as experiencing the fan support during the games and afterwards at our post game tailgate meals with family and friends of the team.

Consider attending a summer camp.  Attending a summer camp is another fantastic way for recruits to spend time on campus with the team and coaching staff, but it's also another great way for the coaching staff to see you play. More information can be found about our summer camps at: GACSoccerCamps.com.