Catholic Sports Camps wants to bring the love of Christ to kids and KIDS LOVE SPORTS! Our camps offer a very unique experience as young athletes enter an environment intentionally created to help them grow in holiness and virtue, while learning high-level training in their sport. To be a great athlete, one needs to invest time practicing, develop discipline and teamwork, and learn perseverance and humility. The same is true to become a holy disciple of Christ!
The CSC team includes Spirit-filled pro and collegiate athletes, coaches, and clergy who teach the skills of sports and the practice of our faith side-by-side with campers. They share personal stories of success and failure in their athletic careers and how relying on their faith in God was so vital. When kids leave our camps, many feel closer to Christ because they have been treated as God's beloved children by these mentors. Our goal is to build these young athletes into happy and holy leaders who learn to bring others to Christ through their sport, eventually returning to coach as young adults. This is called Missionary Discipleship.
Catholic Sports Camps is proud to be part of the Catholic community in the Dioceses of Joliet and Springfield, Illinois. Although it is not a prerequisite to be Catholic or live in these dioceses to attend our camps, each summer we are joined by Catholic campers and leaders who boldly celebrate and share their faith. We seek to draw our campers more into the Faith, to receive the graces through the Sacraments, and to ultimately live a life in union with Jesus Christ both on and off the field. CSC provides a fun and loving environment where campers experience the real joy of being surrounded by others who want to celebrate their faith through daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Reconciliation, and the Rosary. They quickly realize we can give glory to God in all that we do, especially in sports, and that’s pretty cool!
CSC believes in striving for excellence in all that we do, so we recruit Catholic and Christian professional and collegiate athletes/coaches/speakers who have achieved excellence in their own athletic careers. They have the ability to train our campers exceedingly well in their sport, but what really separates them from others is their faith in Jesus Christ. Players like Mike Sweeney, Kansas City Royals Hall of Famer, and Fr. Chase Hilgenbrinck, former MLS soccer pro, have coached our camps. These athletes share that their motivation to succeed comes from their love of God. And that is what they most value passing on to our campers. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord." (Colossians 3:23)
