The OCCC Recreation and Fitness Center hosted Kids Sports Camp throughout the summer. As summer session is coming to end, so are the highly successful camps.

One story that demonstrates the success of Kids Sports Camp is that of Aaliyah Carter, 13, Coach Rone Tempest said.

Tempest said Carter has been coming to the camps for the last six summers. When Carter first started attending the camps, she could barely tie her shoes and couldn’t do anything athletic, he said.

“She’s the real success story of this whole thing,” Tempest said. “When she first started, she could barely run.”

Carter said she attended all of the sports camps this summer and singled out competitive swimming as her favorite.

“When I first started swimming here I was scared because I didn’t know how. But coach thinks I can swim professionally if I keep working,” Carter said.

Carter said she is looking forward to seeing Michael Phelps swim in the upcoming London Olympics.

Carter, an upcoming eighth grader at Brink Junior High, said her favorite part of the camps, other than the sports, is making new friends.

As Carter was talking, her friend Taylor, 8, gave her a hug and told Carter she was nice.

Tempest said he has been coaching these camps for seven years and hasn’t seen anyone like Carter come through.

He said he is glad sports camps like this exist because it introduces young kids to sports they wouldn’t normally get introduced to, like swimming and soccer.

Tempest said it was good to familiarize kids with multiple sports instead of just a few.

He said he believes allowing kids to play sports other than the ones they are good at makes them better.

The other kids in the camp seemed to be having a great time and some, like Cassie, 8, have participated in other camps the school offers, Tempest said.

Cassie said she was recently in the Musical Theatre Camp and performed in their recent production of “Squirm.”

Another successful camp athlete was Andrea, 11, who plays soccer competitively for South Lakes, Tempest said Tempest. Andrea said she has been practicing her soccer juggling skills.

For more information on the remaining sports camps, visit the Recreation and Fitness Center’s website at www.occc.edu/rf.

To contact Mitchell Richards, email sportswriter@occc.edu.