The camp, which will kick off this summer over two sessions (July 28-August 1 and Aug. 4-8) at Phillips Park, features instruction by the head coach of the Big Blue girls soccer program from 1996-2001, Cindy Lavender, and her successor, Fred Day, who made his S.H.S. debut last fall.

Not only will these two bring their several years of coaching expertise (Day also coaches the North Shore Women's Soccer Club), but they will be joined by a staff made up of a veritable who's who of North Shore soccer luminaries.

The staff includes former Swampscott High captains Lindsay Dwyer (now at Williams College) and Christina Stevens (William Smith College), Eastern Mass. champion Marblehead High girls soccer coach Sam Yawson, Merrimack College women's soccer coach Gabe Mejalie and the two captains from Wheaton College's women's soccer program, Christy McHugh and Tracy Prihoda.

If that isn't enough, Lavender and Day promise "surprise visits" at both sessions.

Currently, the camp is only open to girls ages 7-16, but Day says it may become co-ed "some years down the line."

The current and former Big Blue head coaches hope to present basic skills taught to groups split up based on level of ability and age.

"We want to make it fun for the kids," Day says. "We do not want anyone to feel a lot of pressure. These days, you see a lot of kids being yelled at and that nonsense. We want to give them a good base of skills for them to learn the game, so they can enjoy it for the rest of their lives."

Day said he also hopes the girls will find their female staff members to be good role models for them to look up to as athletes and strong women in general.

"We are trying to give them role models as women, such as the college kids we have now. And we hope to pull in a few more people, like Ali Connolly," Day said.

A Marblehead resident, Connolly was a top 10 finalist for the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Woman of the Year Award. Now graduated, Connolly played both soccer and lacrosse for Vermont's Middlebury College.

The brainchild

Day adds that he and Lavender, who put her soccer and softball coaching career on hold when she and husband Mike (the new Marblehead High School baseball coach) became parents to their first child last year, have been talking about starting up this camp for years.

"It's always come down to do we want to give up our summer, and the fact we're coaches, not businesspeople," he says. "So we've always talked about it, but we've never really acted on it."

Day's fellow coach with the U-14 Swampscott Soccer Rage team, Marc McHugh, stepped in to help the operation get off the ground for this year.

"Marc is good at the public relations aspect of getting a business off the ground. He's been a big help in getting us to know the nitty-gritty, like making contact with local officials for the legal end of things and going before the board of health and the field permitting," Day says.

The camp does have a cost attached to it, though Day says he and Lavender want to keep things open and will help out those who wish to join up.

"We wanted to keep it at a reasonable cost, and we have scholarships for kids in need. If families send in more than one kid, they'll get a break," Day says. He has gotten good feedback so far and several of his fellow Swampscott Youth Soccer Association coaches have hinted they'll push for their team to go there en masse.

"We'll get a good response from SYSA. The coaches there think it'll be a great idea to get the kids involved," he says.

At the end of the Day, the current Big Blue coach admits the hope that his team's program will be helped by this camp as well.

"We've been up against it lately, trying to compete against the big schools like Danvers and Salem," he says. "But our numbers have really increased, when you combine Nahant and Swampscott. The girls have responded well. The enthusiasm's really high for the program."

For more information on the LavenderDay Girls Summer Soccer Camp, go online at www.gis.net/bbsn/lavenderday.htm.

 

One Session - July 30-Aug 3, 2007

at Phillips Park, Swampscott, Massachusetts

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