His breath is heavy, but his mind is clear. As he waits for the ball to touch his feet, he narrows his eyes and tries to focus on the reflective, white goal 15 feet in front of him. He propels his foot forward before making contact with the ball; the goalie launches forward, trying to block the shot.

Junior Kai Nelson attended International Management Group in Bradenton, Florida.

“I went to the IMG soccer camp for fun and to get better at soccer,” Nelson said. “It was fun and challenging playing with people better than me.”

Over the course of two weeks, Nelson immersed himself in the intensive training of IMG’s soccer program. 

“Breakfast was from 6:30 to 9 a.m. and then you had to go to your first training session from 9:30 to 11 a.m.,” Nelson said. “Then, you had a training session at the gym and walked straight from there to the field for your next training session which was an hour and a half.”

Although it was his second year at IMG, it was his first time training at that level of intensity. 

“I played at least twice a day, which is way more than I normally do,” Nelson said.

Before attending the camp, Nelson was already acquainted with IMG coach Sam Dorf who reached out to him about the camp.

“[The] coach emailed me and wanted to watch me play at IMG,” Nelson said.

Rigorous training sessions, along with hours of extensive training, ultimately, led to an official camp invitation from Dorf.

“I am grateful that my work paid off and others could notice,” Nelson said. “I got one of the coach’s emails and he said I would fit well on the 16U IMG team so I was happy about that [invitation].” 

He watches the scouts out of the corner of his eye, preparing for what he hopes is a perfect shot. 

Senior Ejypt Gibbs attended a University of Houston camp for basketball in July. He went with his Amateur Athletic Union team: Little Joe Athletics. Gibbs attended the camp to increase his exposure to other high school teams and obtain the attention of college scouts. 

“The camp was for two days, and two games were played for both days,” Gibbs said. “The purpose was to get better and get noticed by scouts that were observing the players. The camp let me see how I could handle pressure and how fast-paced high school teams play.” 

The camp was selective, gathering highly competitive players—including familiar opponents from Summer Creek, St. Francis, Baylor and Shadow Creek. But Gibbs’ hard work paid off, and he managed to grab the attention of some coaches. 

“I talked to an HBCU coach on the second day and got his contact information,” Gibbs said. “That made me feel recognized and that my hard work was finally paying off.” 

Gibbs is a small forward for the cardinals and is confident that the team will dominate as they have done so for the past few years.

Five. Six. Seven. Eight. 

The monotonous echo of eight-counts plays in her head as she learns the first dance of the season.

Junior Vivienne Chen took part in the varsity Belles camp in San Antonio, Texas over the summer. Chen’s schedule was packed with learning new skills and leading the team through difficult new dances.

“I’d wake up at 6 a.m. and dance till midnight,” Chen said. “Technique [training] would occur in the morning and then dance sessions would happen in the afternoon.”

As the varsity Belles captain, Chen led the freshmen through their dances. 

“The camp helped prepare me for the rest of the semester and better connect with the team, Chen said. ”I [now] know what to expect, what technique I should teach the freshmen, and how to be a better leader because of it.”

But in the hours between practices, the Belles squeezed in some recreation: floating in the hotel lazy river.

“At night there would [also] be team bonding time to get to know new members,” Chen said. 

Chen and the Belles are looking forward to the upcoming dance year and are eager to perform their dances they worked so hard at camp for.

The whistle blows: time-out. In the volleyball huddle, senior Bentley Sloan looks around and realizes: this is where she belongs.

“There were players of all skill sets, from the best of the best to some people, probably freshmen, younger still figuring it out,” Sloan said. “I could seriously see myself growing and competing with these people.” 

Over the summer, Sloan embarked on her athletic recruitment process. She traveled all around Texas and the southern United States with her father, seeking opportunities to continue playing volleyball at the collegiate level.

“I think my favorite camp was at Kingsville and Texas A&M,” Sloan said. “[A&M] was a two-day long camp where we got to tour the campus, be in the gym and meet all the coaches.”

In July, she went to an Ottawa University camp. The school invited over five universities to their courts to train high school players.

“It’s all these different colleges giving different advice on approaches, defense, offense,” Sloan said. “They were giving compliments and advice like, ‘Hey, you should work on this. Oh, fix your techniques.’ There was a lot of back and forth and productive criticism.”

The Ottawa head coach first noticed Sloan when her and Sloan’s club team faced off at a volleyball tournament. Following the encounter, Sloan remained in contact with the head coach, attending the first Ottawa camp to express further interest.

“I went [to the first Ottawa camp] to get any advice from the players or the coaches, to show what I could do and then to talk [with the head coach] and see if I could be in consideration to play for that team,” Sloan said.

Following the first camp, Sloan verbally committed to Ottawa University. The whole time, she had her father, a former collegiate and NFL athlete, to support and guide her.

“[My dad] is probably my biggest support system,” Sloan said. “We are very wired the same, so if I have a bad game or bad camp, he knows exactly what to say to me to motivate me and make me realize that it was a big deal, but not put me down.”

With her biggest support, she returned to Ottawa University to join the team for another day camp as they kicked off the season. Here, the head coach introduced the new commit to the team. 

“In the big huddle with varsity and JV, [the head coach] introduced me as the new commit and they all cheered for me,” Sloan said. “It was super fun.”

The following month, in August, Sloan officially signed with Ottawa University volleyball and will attend school there in fall 2025.

“You’re not going to get anything for free,” Sloan said. “You have to work in life for anything that you want.”