Summer Dodgeball Camps

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“While many Naperville residents go outside to stay active during the summer, one group of kids will find a way to burn off some energy right here inside of Patterson elementary school.”

“This particular camp is a summer dodgeball camp. It’s one of our most popular camps, we have over twenty kids this week participating in dodgeball,” said Park District Program director Brock Atwell.

“Dodgeball is one of the fun camps where most of the people already know how to play but watching them learn how to play different kinds of dodgeball and expanding on what they enjoy playing is a privilege,” said Kids First Sports coach Katherine Carter.

Summer Tradition

The Naperville Park District teamed up with Kids First Sports to run many summer programs and one of the most in-demand camps is dodgeball. It’s one of numerous sports-based activities taking place over the summer months, where kids between the ages of 6 and 13 get to have fun with a game of 11 on 11.

“It lends itself very well to other sports. Obviously, there’s the throwing and the catching, they’re working on agility, working on hand eye coordination and then getting out a ton of energy. It’s kinda an endurance sport because they’re out there running around all the time trying to dodge a ball. I think it’s popular because it’s fun, but it also lends itself to those other sports,” said Atwell.

Dodgeball Activities

With the program lasting three hours a day, to help keep things from getting stale, this camp provides more than just your traditional dodgeball games.

“We play a large variety of different kinds of dodgeball. We play regular dodgeball we play a game called kings and queens where the goal is to knock over cones, we play a game called medic where the one player can get other players back in by gently tapping them on the shoulder and we have a number of other games we play as well,” said Carter.

Members of Kids First Sports volunteer to help run the camps. This is a program that’s been functioning for twenty years. It’s one of the events these helpers always look forward to once the summer begins.

“Most of the kids here are pretty competitive, everyone is really engaged, involved, it’s a lot of fun. Everyone’s into it and sometimes we get to hop in and play which is also kinda fun,” said Kids First Sports coach Liam Nichols.

Kids will have their chance to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge through the Park District until mid-August on Monday through Friday.

Naperville News 17 Patrick Codo Reports