Kids might start the camp day by seeing who can make the scariest faces.
Summer used to be a time when kids were just allowed to play, from the moment they woke up until it was time for bed.
Now with both parents working, how can one replicate that experience for kids? Attend Coast Sports Camp, with its founder and the “King of Fun” Steve Morris.
Morris, who grew up on Long Island, attended Baldwin High School and then Yale, where he studied history. After graduating, he produced television commercials and wrote screenplays before “falling” for the world of youth soccer.
The author of “What Size Balls Do I Need,” which addresses youth competitive sports, founded Coast Sports in 1997.
The camp runs Monday through Friday, through August 2, and is held at Brentwood Science Magnet. The camp is for children ages 4 to almost 6 (rookies), ages 6 to 11 (summer of fun), Counselors in training 12- and 13-year-olds and coaches in training, ages 14-15.
Each week has a different theme and there are arts and crafts, face painting, and different fun games such as the “human car wash,” “mess for success” and the “presidential alien scavenger hunt.”
Morris said that after youth arrive in the morning for camp, safety and bathroom protocol are discussed. Then, campers engaging in a morning contest that might be continuous talking, lip-syncing, staring, cartoon voices, silly dances, and yes, burping.
And the best for parents, besides not having to listen to a burping contest? There is hot lunch available through Citizen Sprout kitchen in Santa Monica.
Morris writes “It’s summer. A time for our kids to lay back and watch the clouds roll across the sky. Or stretch out with a book feeling the breeze tickle their toes. Or best of all, just relax and luxuriate in being bored. Sounds like your kids, right?
“Time to get real,” Morris said. “That is not summer in this corner of the civilized world. We’ve got our kids doing a week of science camp, followed by a week of beach camp, then there’s the family vacation before racing back for a week of sleepaway camp.”
Parents ask if they can do Coach Steve’s camp by the day, and he responds “Absolutely. We can do anything you want, but if a day or two or four are all you can do, come right in, we’d still love to have you,” Morris said. “We’re now offering camp by the day, too.” https://www.coastsports.com/
Steve Morris started Coast Soccer Camp in 1997.