By Nolan P. Schmidt

Posted on June 6, 2018

Photos by Hillary Ehlen and special to Bison Illustrated

Attend NDSU’s summer athletic camps and prove it.

The recruiting process can be quite arduous at times for both the recruit and coaching staff. However, the process of becoming a Bison and proving you are a great fit for North Dakota State can be made easy. Each team puts on summer camps for high schoolers in an attempt to get a look at athletes that could very well become the next great Bison. These camps are offered in football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, track and field, volleyball and wrestling. There is no better place to showcase your skills than in front of the entire NDSU coaching staff in your respective sport.

Perhaps the camp with the most attention put on it is the Individual Football Camp which runs from June 22 to June 24. Not only will the entire NDSU football coaching staff be there, but there will also be over 70 other coaches from various levels of collegiate football. NDSU defensive tackles coach Nick Goeser says that competing at camps is extremely important. “I’m telling you if a skill player is a good enough player, and he competes at camps and he shows what he can do on film, we’ll recruit any position,” he said.

Kids talk to Bison players during Bison summer camp

Atif Austin, NDSU’s former Special Teams Coordinator and Wide Receivers coach has a story for all the Bison recruits thinking about coming to the camp from places outside of the Midwest (Austin was in charge of recruiting Florida players). “We have four guys coming up from Florida this next year and one of them actually came to camp,” he said. “When I went to his school, I told him how important our summer camps are and he invested it himself to get on a plane to get up here and walk away with a scholarship offer. That might not have happened if he hadn’t come to our camp.”

Football is not the only sport where camps are important. Volleyball has a number of different camps going on during the summer. However, the four camps best suited to improve and show off your skills are the two Positional Camps, the All-Skills Camp and the High Performance Camp. Head Coach Jennifer Lopez says they use summer camps to scope out future talent. “Now moving forward, utilizing our summer camp to continue to evaluate, to continue to bring in kids that we’re recruiting so we can train them and develop them and see what they have,” she said. “How well do they listen and work with us, in the gym setting. We want to get some high level kids to evaluate and make some decisions on.”

As you can see, summer camps are vital to NDSU athletics in their endless pursuit of excellence in sports. See all the scheduled summer camps here and find the one that is right for you. Your quest to become the next Carson Wentz or Alyssa Olin is made that much easier if you attend Bison summer camps. The coaches value them and so should you. Register today.

2018 Bison Camps (For Grades 9-12)

Football

Team Camp
June 15-17
$150-185 per camper

Individual Camp
June 22-24
$260-325

Hard Fast Together Smart Bison Summer camps shirt

Volleyball

Positional Camp 1
June 11-13
$105 First Session, $90 each additional session

All-Skills Camp
June 14-16
$250-300

High Performance Camp
July 6-8
$290-340

Positional Camp 2
July 9-11
$105 First Session, $90 each additional session

Team Camp
July 12-13
$225-275

Soccer

Elite Girls ID Camps
July 8-10
$275-300

Men’s Basketball

Big Man/Guard Camp
June 17-19
$240-290

Team Camp
June 21-22
$300 per team

Overnight Camp
August 1-3
$250-300

Kids watch the football players practice at the Bison summer camps

Women’s Basketball

College Prep Camp
June 10-12
$200-225

Total Package Team Camp
June 12-14
$175-350

Wrestling

Select Team Camp
June 24-28
$265-365

Track & Field

Hurdles, Sprints, Long/Triple Jump, High Jump, Shot Put, Discus Camps
June 26-28
$225

Overnight Pole Vault and Distance Running Camp
June 26-29
$400-900

Javelin, Long/Triple Jump, High Jump, Shot Put, Discus Camps
July 23-26
$110-225