It’s still more than four months away, but preparations for the highly successful Valley Soccer Camp at James Madison University are well under way.

Directed by JMU Men’s Soccer Coach Tom Martin, the popular camp brings in more than 200 players ages 12-18 for a week of life at the JMU campus and intense soccer instruction and competition. Martin said the camp preparation begins basically when the fall season ends. The camp will be held this summer from July 5-8.

“We start working on the camp right when the regular season ends (mid November). We get our staff lined up and make certain the facilities will be in order,” he said. “We use the Integrated Science and Applies Technology side of the campus. It’s all enclosed and there are air conditioned dorms and a cafeteria plus 6-7 fields all in walking distance.”

Martin insists that the camp coaches are all either with college programs or well-decorated high school teams.

“The kids who come here want to learn from top coaches and they should,” Martin said. “We use players as counselors and they have a supporting role too, but the campers don’t want to be coached by our players.”

Martin said another distinctive of his camp is that staff, including himself, are required to stay in the dorms with the campers, putting four or five on each floor. The event draws heavily from the Washington D.C. and Richmond areas along with the rest of the Mid-Atlantic region, but also from military families who are based in Europe but still have residency in Virginia and are interested in JMU as a possible college choice.

The camp program features technical work, including specialized goalkeeper training, in the morning, a lighter session of group tactical emphasis in the midday heat, and then competitive games under the lights in the evening.

For more information on the camp, click here .