Spirit of Sport – July 2014
Air Force Academy Sports Camps Officially Recognized as TrueSport Camps
In a positive setting, sport can provide young athletes with the opportunity to learn important life lessons such as making good choices and practicing perseverance, respect, responsibility, and teamwork. And while some young athletes will grow up to play collegiately or perhaps even professionally, all of them will take the lessons they have learned through participating in sport with them the rest of their lives. TrueSport Camps provide participants with a stepping stone toward a successful life through the creation of a positive sport experience.
TrueSport Camps aim to change the playing field with compelling and comprehensive lesson plans designed specifically for camp settings. The lessons focus on three pillars—Clean Competition, Sportsmanship, and Peak Performance —and each pillar includes five lessons for athletes ages 10-17. “TrueSport Talks”—video messages from Olympic and Paralympic Athlete Ambassadors—introduce and support each lesson.
Among the first to be officially recognized as a TrueSport Camp, the Air Force Academy (AFA) in Colorado Springs is integrating the program into its upcoming summer season.
As one of the country’s elite military institutions of higher education and a member of the highly-competitive Mountain West Conference for athletics, the overall mission of the AFA’s athletic program is well-suited to the TrueSport Camp objectives. The AFA aims to provide an athletic experience that creates a realistic leadership experience in a mentally and physically challenging setting, and teaches leadership in a competitive environment and builds character.
This summer the AFA will offer 20 sports camps as well as several other specialty camps, all of which are led by their head coaches with assistance from their staffs, as well as the top coaches locally and nationally. Each camper will be exposed to the TrueSport curriculum and will learn important lessons and skills for what it means to be a TrueSport athlete.
The TrueSport Camp program operates under the philosophy that it is not just winning that takes precedence, but how you win is just as important, and sport acts as a vehicle to guide athletes to ultimate success.
To learn more about TrueSport Camps, visit our camp page at http://truesport.org/camps.