CIU Athletic Camps Underway

CIU Athletic Camps Underway

Dribbling the ball on the CIU soccer field

CIU Boys and Girls Soccer Camp

Record Number of Campers Learn About Soccer, Integrity

Columbia International University Men’s Soccer Coach James Whitaker blindfolded a grade-school age soccer camper named Hannah and one of his own player-assistants, Mitchell Roberts. He then asked each of them to kick five balls into a goal. Hannah made all five shots. Roberts missed wildly. What Roberts didn’t know was that Whitaker took the blindfold off of Hannah.

Whitaker then had a question for the campers: How does it make you feel when the other team doesn’t follow the rules?

“Not fair!” came the unison response from a record number 110 campers sitting on the bleachers of the CIU gym.

Whitaker then went to the Bible’s book of Job to point the campers to a man who had a lot of “bad things happen” to him, but “didn’t stop worshipping God.”

“In the game of soccer, if something bad happens, we still need to play by the rules,” Whitaker said. “How we react when bad things happen, tells us a lot about who we are.”

Whitaker’s devotional on integrity began another day of CIU’s boys and girls soccer camp. It was followed by a lesson on a soccer move known as “The Renaldo Chop” and a walk across campus to the CIU soccer field for more fundamentals and soccer matches.

Check out video from the soccer camp on CIU's Instagram page.  

All CIU athletic camps integrate spiritual lessons with athletic instruction and training. Still to come this summer is the boys and girls basketball camp, June 27-29 for ages 5-14, and the boys and girls cross country camp, July 25-28 for 7th-12th graders. Get more information on these day camps for youth.