Applications available for April 24-26 Liberty Hockey Select Camps

Registration is now open for Liberty University Hockey's Select Camps, set for April 24-26 in the LaHaye Ice Center and surrounding facilities.

"All the camps are still acceptance-based, by invitation only," Club Sports Recruitment and Summer Planning Coordinator Brett Berthiaume said, noting Liberty committed to three Division I men's players during the men's Select Camp last year. "We're excited. Liberty's a special place and we want to continue to attract talented players from across North America and around the world. We believe these camps will help ensure that Liberty is seen as a great opportunity for players from any level to come and play here."

Application information for the Men's 2025 Select Camp, open to prospects born in 2008 and before, and the Women's 2025 Select Camp, for players born between 2007-2009, is available online.

This will be the fourth consecutive year that the Liberty camps will be offered to prospective ACHA Division I and II and AAU Division III men's players, at a cost of $195 per participant. This year, a third group will be added to the men's camp, giving players interested in competing for the DIII team a chance to showcase their skills and get an early taste of what the Liberty Hockey experience is all about.

"The value of this camp has proven to be pretty awesome for us to continue to do it every year," Berthiaume said. "We're finding more and more talent."

It will be the second year in a row potential ACHA Division I and II women's players can attend the female camp for $125.

"Last year, we added women to the mix of having them participate at the same time and had a lot of success with that," Berthiaume said, noting that between 15 and 20 women attended last spring's women's camp. "We want to help the keep the Division I and II women's programs growing as much as possible, with a strong recruitment camp and summer camps."

Berthiaume said the college landscape is changing for hockey, with the NCAA reducing roster sizes and the Canadian Hockey League — including Juniors programs in the provinces of Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec — now allowing its players to go to NCAA and ACHA college programs. That opens the possibility for more highly talented players from across the United States and Canada to join the Flames' and Lady Flames' programs next fall and in future seasons.

Besides participating in on-ice sessions, including three games in three days for the men's players, camp participants can get dryland performance testing assessments from Sports Performance staff, including measuring peak vertical velocities, broad jumps, 10-meter sprint times, and horizontal force-velocity profiles.

Campers are also invited to have a Q&A dinner with coaches and hear from current team members in an athletes panel, schedule a tour of the university, and attend the last Convocation of the spring semester on Friday, April 26, when Liberty President Dondi E. Costin is scheduled to speak.

"All of our coaches are completely involved in the evaluation of athletes that come for both the men's and women's prospect camps, and they all have a hand in talking to players and parents as they arrive on campus and spend time with us for those few days," Berthiaume said. "There is a wealth of knowledge, not just from our coaching staff, but from committed players coming in the fall as well as returning players, by being in the camp and at the panel."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer

Applications available for April 24-26 Liberty Hockey Select Camps

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