Written by: Monica Klinkmueller

Georgia College Soccer hosted their biannual ID Soccer Camp on Sept. 25. The team hosted 35 high school girls, who spent all day Sunday playing 7 v. 7 scrimmages, going on a campus tour, eating lunch on campus, playing 11 v. 11 scrimmages and participating in a question and answer session.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to bring in girls who we have been speaking to or who are in the recruiting process with or just young women who are interested in GC to come in for the day,” coach Hope Clark said. “It gives us an opportunity to evaluate them for our program.”

Players who attended the camp got to play alongside current GC Bobcats during the scrimmages, giving them an opportunity to see the skill level required to pursue soccer in college. “First and foremost, anyone who comes to the camp always gives us great feedback, and then they go home and they talk about GC in their community not only from a soccer perspective, which we hope, but also from a university perspective,” Clark said.

About 80 percent of players who are currently on the Georgia College soccer team attended the ID Camp when they were in high school, so this camp proves to be a key resource in the recruiting process. The camp also serves as a fundraiser for the team, which leads to the team being able to provide more scholarship money for players. Senior goalkeeper Jessica Catapano attended the camp when she was a senior in high school and even committed to play at Georgia College through this camp.

Catapano, along with other players, volunteered at the camp this year. “I really like that we get to talk to the girls about how we like to play and what coach likes to see, so we get to help them develop,” Catapano said. “I also like answering questions they have and showing them around campus. It definitely brings in money for our scholarships which is good, but we also get to look at all the different players that are out there so we can build our team with the strongest girls we can find.”

Junior Sarah Miller, an outside back, did not attend the camp while she was in high school but got the chance to help out with the camp on Sept. 25. “I think it’s good to have all the students out here to not only see the level of play they need to be at, but also so we can talk to them one-on-one and answer their questions about college soccer,” Miller said.

“It gives our coaches a chance to see perspective players playing with us, rather than at just another recruiting camp. To see them playing with us shows our coaches how good they are and how they can respond to the pressure of playing against a college team.”

The camp yielded good results for the team, ending with one high schooler committing to play at GC for the class of 2017 and garnering the interest of many more.

(Feature image by: GC Communications)