Blue Devil athletic camps reach far beyond the campus walls

MENOMONIE (August 2, 2022) - UW-Stout athletic camps have returned, and the Blue Devils are not only conducting or leading camps and clinics on campus, but around the Midwest and beyond. 

The Blue Devil women's basketball program, men's basketball program, football program and the gymnastics program had a successful summer camp season with camps and clinics on campus, but coaches from track and field, men's ice hockey, football, gymnastics, men's basketball and women's basketball have reached beyond the walls of UW-Stout.

Blue Devil assistant football coach KeyShawn Carpenter has worked camps in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois, while assistant gymnastics coach Kj Wheeler has worked camps in Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Kansas. Assistant hockey coach Mike Janda reached beyond the United States border, working two camps in the Canadian province of Alberta, in addition to working camps in the US in Illinois, Idaho and Missouri, and locally in Eau Claire. Hockey head coach Mike MacDonald conducted a youth hockey power skating camp in Menomonie. Track and field head coach Kyle Steiner held an extended pole vault clinic on-campus, stretching over several weeks. 

In addition to conducting on-campus coaches and clinics, Stout women's basketball assistant coach Alexis Foley worked five camps in Minnesota, and men's basketball coaches Jim Lake and Tom Webb combined to work camps at UW-Madison and Ferris State (Mich), as well as camps in nearby Cadott and Hopkins, Minn.

The football coaches conducted UW-Stout satellite clinics at Stanley-Boyd High School, and also participated in camps in Duluth, Minn., Schofield, Wis., Minneapolis, Minn., Eagan, Minn., and Vermillion, S.D.  

Blue Devil coaches and student-athletes worked with students as young as third grade through high school. The size of clinics ranged from five attendees for a football long snapper camp that football head Clayt Birmingham worked in Eau Claire, to several camps Carpenter worked that had 600 or more attendees in each camp. At outlying camps, Blue Devil coaches and student-athletes served more than 5700 summer campers. 

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ON-CAMPUS CAMPS BACK IN SWING
The COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on camps, canceling all camps at Stout for the summer of 2020. Camps returned to campus in 2021, but in a much more limited form. The camp season of 2022 returned to full bloom.

The women's gymnastics team hosted three weeks of overnight camp in June -  two five-day camps and an elite two-day camp. Blue Devil gymnastics head coach Becky Beaulieu said her three camps combined attendance was approximately 275 campers from nine different states.

The Blue Devil men's basketball team hosted nine different camps, clinics and local team shootouts that brought more than 350 participants to the UW-Stout campus. Lake, his coaching staff and his student-athletes hosted camps that began in May and ran into August. Lake and his staff also conduct camps and clinics throughout the school year. Lake's camps stress individual skills, but also include team camps.

The women's basketball team hosts three different camps, one in June and two in August that included 225 total participants. Women's head basketball coach Hannah Iverson and her coaching staff and student-athletes host two camps for elementary aged boys and girls and an elite camp for girls from fifth through 12th grades. At the program's Basketball and Leadership Camp, the campers work on fundamental basketball skills, stress and develop leadership and work with the Blue Devil players. The campers at the three-day leadership camp also have the opportunity to participate in Stout Adventures Courses, including rock climbing and challenge courses.

The Blue Devil football program hosted a two-day elite camp on-campus in sweltering mid-July weather with approximately 45 overnight campers.

From July 25-28, UW-Stout was host to the Apple Valley Eastview High School marching band camp. While the camp was self-instructed by Eastview staff, the University provided housing, meals, and practice space for the nearly 300-member band at Don and Nona Williams Stadium and the surrounding Recreation and Athletic Complex. The Sports and Fitness Center provided a rain alternative in the multi-purpose room.