Simpson has a vast array of sports camps for sports such as wrestling, baseball, swimming and softball, which bring in many prospective students.

These camps are held throughout the year and are generally for middle school through high school students. Many students that attend these camps find Simpson is the place for them.

Various coaches said that the camps do not cost Simpson students anything directly from what they are paying each year to be here, but they do bring in potential students to see the campus.

Simpson Wrestling Coach Ron Peterson has benefited greatly from his wrestling camp. “We have several wrestlers on our team right now that have attended our camps in the past, thus becoming interested in Simpson,” says Peterson.

The wrestling camp is held over the summer and was for grades seven through 12 this past year. “Last summer we had about 100 students in our camp,” said Peterson. The wrestling camp usually has about five to six outside clinicians along with five or six wrestlers running the camp.

As for funding for the camp, “Simpson does not fund our camp, we do it as a fundraiser for our wrestling program,” said Peterson. “The camp situation has been good from a recruiting point of view. It is a good fund-raiser for our program.”

Simpson’s baseball camp is over Christmas break. “We have had as high as 100 kids attend and as low as 25,” said John Sirianni, head baseball coach and athletics director. “We usually have six to 10 baseball players work at the camp, usually most of our assistant coaches and a few professional players or high school or college coaches work at it also.”

As for funding for the baseball camp, “Our camps are funded through camp fees and the money goes to help supplement the budget and to help some of our part time coaches’ salary situation,” said Sirianni.

The softball program has many different camps ranging from camps for pitching, to hitting, to a clinic on focusing just on skills. “We have about 200 individuals involved in our softball clinic each school year,” said Softball Coach Henry Christowski. The softball coaching staff and players are the ones who are generally working the softball camp.

“All clinics are used as fund-raisers for the softball program,” said Christowski. “Simpson College does not fund them in any way. Sports camps or clinics are an excellent way of exposing prospective students to the softball stag, the campus and to the softball program facilities here at Simpson. This is a great way to get kids on the campus and get a taste of the college atmosphere.”

Last year was the first year for Head Swimming Coach Mark Corley to be in charge of a swimming camp. “We had 17 swimmers attend, with two coaches and two chaperons running the camp,” said Corley. “The swim camp lasts for four and a half days. The campers had to pay for everything.”

“Everything associated with the camp came from non-Simpson funds,” said Corley. As for recruiting future Simpson swimmers Corley said, “It’s too early to tell if it will bring in future students, as last year’s campers were all a long ways away from attending college.”

Some programs don’t have camps for their sport, like cheerleading. Cheerleading Coach Tara Price said, “We don’t do a summer camp for cheerleading. We just do clinic during the academic year for elementary students strictly as a fund-raiser.”