Summer Track & Field Camp Begins This Monday, 6/27

Dear Parents,

As promised, the school year has ended and summer is here! We are excited to help your kids start their summer off with a ton of fun and great exercise.

Everything you need to know is included in this email, so please save it for future reference. A copy of this email will also be posted to our Family Portal site (more info on that below).

***Please note that once the summer camp begins, all questions, concerns, etc. must go to Coach Jill Chestnut. You can always find Jill’s email and cell (please only use cell for emergencies) in our Parent App (see below).***

Recommended Clothing/Shoes/Equipment:

• Other than a personal water bottle, comfortable clothing, and sneakers, your child does not need anything specific for camp.
• Please send your child to camp each day with a full water bottle
• If it is chilly when you leave your house, sweats are fine, but make sure they can remove layers as it will warm up quickly
• Lightweight running sneakers are best, but any comfortable sneaker works. Try to avoid high top basketball shoes.

Here is a blog post from our website on buying shoes for kids. You will get a discount at the Haddonfield Running Company if you mention our club.

First Day Procedure:

• There is plenty of street parking near the high school.
• Please arrive at 7:50am so we can get the kids moving at exactly 8:00.
• Look for our green South Jersey Track & Field tent inside the high school stadium.
• The coaches and volunteers will be prepared to get the kids moving right away while a parent checks them in.
• When you check in, please let the staff know of any specific health or other concerns you have for your child. We have the information you provided on the registration form, but it is always helpful to go over details in person.
• When you check in you will receive your child’s uniform t-shirt (if you registered by May 30 you were guaranteed a shirt in the size you indicated, otherwise we will do our best to accommodate.)
• Your child will be assigned a small group based on their age. If there is a specific reason your child needs to be in a group with an older or younger sibling, please just let us know. If your child has a friend in the program, and they are of the same age but end up in different groups, just let us know.
• Each registered child will have a name tag. We use the name tags as a system for checking the kids in and out each day. If your child ends up taking their name tag home by mistake, please remember to send it back in with them the next day.

Drop-Off and Pick-Up:

It is fine to leave your kids with us for the duration of each session. We only ask that you respect the coach’s and volunteer’s time and be ready to pick your kids up promptly at 9:30 each day. ***If you are having any issue at all picking your child up please contact Coach Jill as soon as possible.

We will always begin at 8:00am sharp. It is fine if you arrive late – just tell your child to find their small group and jump in.

We will not leave the high school track/stadium during any session, and you will always pick them up there.
Please have a clear plan with your child about pick up. If you want them to remain with us until you physically pick them up, we will gather at the area just outside the track near 2nd Ave (see the green star on the map below).
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­Camp Finale Track Meet – July 8th, 6:00pm

We will conclude the camp with a real track meet on the evening of Friday, July 8. There will be no morning session that day. You do not need to do anything to prepare for this, a kids will just show up and follow instructions. Each kids will be permitted to do 3 events, and we encourage them to do at least one running event and at least one field event. The primary goal of this meet is to continue learning about the sport by experiencing a real track meet. It is meant to be fun. We will record results and share them with you, but there are no awards, and we will not be emphasizing winning or placing in events. It will be up to you if you wish to share the results with your child. This is a great way for parents and other family members to see their kids in action, and if you’ve never seen your kid compete in a track and field event, your are in for a treat. We will have some light refreshments, and we encourage families to bring their own picnics. Hopefully Kona Ice will be able to stop by. We invite some other local clubs to join us at this meet to make it even more fun for the kids.

Communication:

The following information was included in the email receipt you should have received when you registered for camp. If you did not see the email receipt, please check your spam folder.

Please visit our website at www.southjerseytfc.com, and then navigate to our Family Portal (direct link) to sign up for club-wide and specific program updates, and to see/subscribe to the club Google calendar. When you access the google calendar for the first time, do so in a web browser (not the google app), so that you can check SJTFC to subscribe. Also, please join our Summer Camp Remind for last-minute updates (we use a different Remind for each program, so please join this one even if you are following a different program). You can also find all of these links in our convenient Parent App. The Parent App can be saved to your mobile device’s homescreen, for quick access to all our communication tools, as well as emergency coach contacts.

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­Additional (non-required 🙂 reading:

Our Philosophy and What Your Kids Can Expect:

You can go to our website to read our Mission and Philosophy. Underlying everything we do as a club is our strong belief that every kid deserves to experience the fun, excitement, and healthy benefits of athletics, regardless of physical ability or talent. Too often kids are turned off of sports at a young age simply because they have not yet learned the skills needed to make a given sport fun. Sometimes this is because they are maturing more slowly than some peers, and sometimes it is just a lack of instruction. Even though the governing bodies of field sports like soccer, field hockey, football, etc, know that they are losing too many kids early on, it is hard to find a balance between giving kids a change to grow and develop, and forming competitive travel teams. Track and field is different. There is no need to separate kids into skill levels in track and field, and as a result we can keep it more about fun for longer, allowing kids to develop at their own speed. This is what USA Track & Field wants us to do as youth coaches, not because of they are solely focused on kids, but because they know it will lead to more US athletes winning more medals in the Olympics! So, if you think your kid is talented, our advice is to let them have fun. If they love the sport, and keep loving it, they will be more likely to reach their potential when it is time. If, on the other hand, your child has struggled with sports, but they love running, jumping and/or throwing things as far as they can, then it’s likely they are just maturing more slowly than their peers that excel at those other sports. The truly exciting thing about that is that we have tons of evidence that shows the later an athlete matures, the more likely they are to achieve higher levels of performance (you can read all about this here). For this reason, we treat every kid like they might be a future Olympian, not so much because winning is important, but because that is what will lead to them having an authentic athletic experience, which every kid deserves.

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Other South Jersey Track & Field Programs

Please check out our website to see the other programs we offer throughout the year. We are now taking registration for Fall Cross Country. We have a very exciting cross country season planned, with beginner and competitive options. Our competitive team participates in low-key, intramural meets, fun meets like the Cherokee Challenge and the Six Flags Wild Safari Invitational, and opportunities to run at the highest levels of competition in post-season regional and national championships.

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Register for Fall Cross Country

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­Thank you, and we will see you on Monday!

Coach Craig