Camp Highlight - Sports Camp

Regional Sports Camp is held at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and brings 350-400 campers together each summer from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and a handful of other states. Campers choose a sport to emphasize for the week and then spend their time at camp playing their sports and spending time with their huddles. Part of the backbone of success at Sports Camp is the presence of 50-55 spiritually solid, college-aged huddle leaders.  

Jonny Peterson serves as the male huddle leader coordinator and Joy Gardner, an FCA Collegiate Representative, serves as the female huddle leader coordinator for Regional Sports Camp. In these roles, Jonny and Joy recruit college students to be huddle leaders at Sports Camp, train them to serve, and care for the leaders throughout the week of Sports Camp (and sometimes beyond). Joy is known as the “mom” to the female huddle leaders at camp. Both Jonny and Joy have built a great deal of trust with these huddle leaders, and many of them return year after year to serve in this role. 

Often, huddle leaders think they are coming to camp just to lead a bunch of kids and play a sport they love. While that is partly true, there is so much more to serving as a huddle leader. Because of the strong spiritual component woven throughout every aspect of Sports Camp, the huddle leaders learn to unpack what the evening speakers talk about, lead the campers in devotions, and help answer the hard questions the campers may have. Huddle leaders are stretched and challenged because every day presents new and unique opportunities and challenges.

Huddle leaders receive two days of training before camp begins. This training time is designed to allow for a tremendous time of growth and connection among huddle leaders that prepares them for the various encounters and challenges they may experience within their huddles throughout the week of camp. It is often incredibly impactful for huddle leaders as they realize the responsibility that lies before them and the need to make sure their own relationships with the Lord are solid going into the camp week. The training time ends with communion and a commissioning service to culminate training and launch leaders into an intense ministry week.

The Camp Week

Huddle leaders enthusiastically welcome campers to Sports Camp on Monday afternoon, and activities are jam-packed for the rest of the week. Each morning, campers and huddle leaders come together to do devotions and have breakfast together. Next, everyone participates in a sports clinic with their coaches. Before lunch, they move into huddle time where campers and huddle leaders work through a portion of scripture or unpack questions about the camp theme.  Following lunch, everyone heads back to their sports clinics for an afternoon of fun and competition. By this time, huddle leaders and campers are ready for dinner and chapel time. The day ends with evening huddle time where huddle leaders unpack what the speaker talked about. This is often a time of intense sharing by campers and is most often when campers give their lives to the Lord or recommit their lives to Him. 

Huddle leaders give so much of themselves throughout the week of camp, and while it is exhausting, Joy says of the huddle leaders, “They have such a great time of connection and so much fun together.” 

Lifelong relationships are formed because of how the week stretches and challenges the huddle leaders to not only seek God more fully but to rely on the support of others so that they can lead their huddles effectively. The lasting impact these leaders make on the campers in their huddles is immeasurable, and the campers and huddle leaders alike are often sad when the week ends. After the campers leave on Thursday afternoon, FCA hosts an ice cream social for the huddle leaders to thank them and bring closure to the week. These leaders have become so cemented together during the week that the social is often an emotional time of saying goodbye to each other. Last year during the ice cream social Joy noticed that a couple groups of huddle leaders were missing. She looked across the cafeteria and saw them together immersed in prayer for each other. It was such a picture of the beauty of Sports Camp for not only the campers but for the leaders as well. To form those kinds of relationships in under a week is incredible, but it happens time and time again at Sports Camp.

The impact of sports camp on both huddle leaders and campers is incredible, and it is a highlight of the summer for hundreds of young people. Campers, huddle leaders, coaches, and FCA staff are all disappointed that there will be no sports camp this summer, but there is still much to look forward to: