First Summer Satellite Camps Were a Success

Summer time is usually a time for vacations and relaxation, but not for Head Coach Bart Sasnett of the Men's Soccer Team at Daytona State College. While some went to the beach or other parts of the country, Sasnett stayed local and reached out to the soccer community.

"We have so much talent in this area and I wanted to make sure that the Daytona State College Men's Soccer Team is doing everything they can to be a part of it," says Sasnett. "My vision was to host a camp that would place the teams into a competitive environment and focus on team building, and I believe we did just that."

Over the course of the summer, Sasnett held two satellite soccer camps for local high schools. The first camp was held in Palm Coast, Florida for Flagler County and consisted of Flagler Palm Coast High School and Matanzas High School. The second was held in Ormond Beach, Florida for Volusia County and consisted of Seabreeze High School, Spruce Creek High School, New Smyrna Beach High School, and University High School.

The main concept for these camps was team building, but there was a high emphasis placed on teaching the tactical and mental aspect of the game from a college and university coach's perspective. Coming into the camp, the teams already had the knowledge from their high school coaches, but Sasnett wanted them to see if from multiple coaching angles.

"I wanted to host a high school camp that would get these guys in front of college coaches so they could get the same kind of training that us coaches give to our players every day," said Sasnett. "I brought in coaches from different colleges and universities so that not only do the high school players from around here get identified by other schools, but they get legitimate training from different college and university coaches." Cohesion is a huge part of the game and putting these high school players into a camp setting against other high schools is a great way to build unity for the coming season.

Schools that were brought in for the camps were:

Daytona State College

Middle Georgia State University

Thomas University

Ohio Valley University

ASA College: Miami

Flagler College

Florida Southern College

Albany State University

Webber International University

Coach Sasnett plans to host these camps every summer with hopes of getting the local talent exposed to colleges and universities. "The high schools in these areas support our soccer team so it's a pleasure to be able to return the favor."