Hockey Summer Camps foster friendships on ice, commitments to Christ

Gallery: (7-25-2024) Summer Hockey Camps 2024

Liberty University's Hockey Summer Camps, held in three-day sessions over five weeks from June 16-18 (Mites, Squirts, & Pee Wees) to July 7-9 (U12-16 girls) at the LaHaye Ice Center, offered hundreds of youth from around the region and across the country opportunities to advance their games and grow spiritually with assistance from Flames and Lady Flames coaches and players.

"Summer camps are definitely a highlight of the summer," said Kris Bladen ('24), who played on Liberty's Division I men's hockey team over the past four seasons and served as a camp counselor.

"It's definitely a really cool networking experience for the kids to grow some good, solid, Christian relationships. On the ice, we have on-ice coaching from Quinn Ryan ('21), who obviously knows his stuff and has done a lot for a lot of youth players, (Division II men's hockey Head Coach) Ben Hughes is also a great hockey mind, and you've got (DI Associate Head) Coach Jeff (Boettger) helping with that. But most of the growth comes off the ice in our chapel sessions and the testimony sessions."

Club Sports Recruitment and Summer Planning Coordinator Brett Berthiaume, who directed the camps, said a total of 42 youth from the five camps accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

"That was something really special for us," Berthiaume said. "Each year, it's our mission to bring these kids on campus and show them what it's like to be godly men on and off the ice. We're very fortunate to have a great group of counselors and on-ice staff to help to fulfill our mission."

"It's always fun to come back and help out with the kids," added rising senior defenseman Nate Cox, another camp counselor. "I'm very grateful to be here at Liberty and to impact these kids' lives.

Being able to provide a spot where we can share the Gospel freely and be all around Christians that happen to be hockey players, and not hockey players that just happen to be Christians, and just keep honing in on what the Gospel is leading us to do and what Jesus wants us to do."

Berthiaume said the camps are hockey-focused and provide exceptional training for players to accelerate in their on-ice skills.

"We do a great job of providing kids an opportunity to truly come out to a place that's maybe not your typical geographical location up north to be able to come out here, develop their skills, develop who they are as people off and on the ice, so that's really important to us," he said. "A lot of what we do is skill-based on the ice, shooting or mechanics and technique."

He said year-round planning helps elevate the camp experience from summer to summer.

"Each year, we want to expand what we're doing and make it better," Berthiaume said. "That's our goal. We want to make sure that we give our camper the best experience going forward, better than what they had in the previous year."

Video by Colleen Schaner and Patrick Strawn/Club Sports Director of Video & Media

Hockey Summer Camps foster friendships on ice, commitments to Christ

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