LEANN BURKE / THE DEPAUW
After the festivities of graduation die down and summer slowly settles in, DePauw University's campus, more or less, becomes a ghost town.
Except, however, for athletic programs. June and July serve as the perfect time to host summer camps, especially for DePauw’s programs such as football, volleyball and soccer.
“Most of our camps…are designed to bring high school-aged students here,” athletic director Stevie Baker-Watson said. “It helps us from an admissions perspective, so we’re able to bring prospective students to campus so they get to see campus [and] experience it.”
Head football coach Bill Lynch, whose Bishop Dullagan camps run throughout June, agreed with Baker-Watson.
“They get to see what a high school kid [is] most interested in: living arrangements [and] food,” Lynch said. “The other thing that we do is, in between every session… we have meetings. So, they’re in a variety of the academic classrooms around campus too.”
For the most part, these camps are made very affordable for any student athlete to be able to attend. An example is volleyball coach Deb Zeller’s two-day volleyball clinic for ages 7-17 that they’ve done for almost twenty straight years.
“It’s sort of a combination of me wanting to grow volleyball in the area… and a little bit of a community outreach,” Zeller said. “We try to keep the cost as low as we can because we know there are many in the surrounding area that can’t afford to send their kids to expensive camps.”
The camps also allow for DePauw to interact with the Greencastle area. Greencastle High School has recently started to become involved with DePauw’s football program.
“They came last summer, and at this point, tentatively plan on coming this summer,” Lynch said. “So as we sit here… we’re still trying to put it together… Teams will finalize their plans over the next six weeks, and individuals will go all the way up to May 1st.”
Along with targeting individuals for recruitment, some coaches also look to give back to the community, such as women’s basketball coach Kris Huffman, whose program, “Best Friend Camp”, takes the profits and proceeds and puts it in a fund to benefit the Putnam County animal shelter.
“It’s got a clear philanthropic arm to it,” Baker-Watson said. “The reason that they do that camp is to give back to the community.”
At the very least, these camps can provide DePauw’s athletes the chance to practice their sport, which can be seen in Zeller’s camps.
“My goal, really, is to offer this camp so that my own players come back to DePauw, coach, and thereby… are getting to play themselves in the evening,” Zellers said. “They’re getting their hands on a volleyball, team chemistry, bonding. It allows an opportunity for our players to… work [the camps], which is really beneficial to our DePauw volleyball team.”
These summer programs are a crucial time for athletic exposure at DePauw, as the campus’s location can sometimes hurt its publicity.
“We’re not in that direct line for people to come by,” Baker-Watson said. “So anytime we have an opportunity… to show what Greencastle has to offer, what DePauw has to offer, we want to do that.”
Although these camps have been significantly successful of late, there is still room to grow and improve.
“I would love to see all of our coaches feel like this is a great place for them to do a summer camp,” Baker-Watson said. “That can help them do a lot of their things in their job. It can help them recruit [and] it can help them bring broader recognition to DePauw.”