2024 Summer Camp Registration Open! Our Summer 2024 Soccer Camp schedule is set and registration is open! Take advantage of our Early Bird discount (till March 15) and register now . What better way to spend the summer than to be with friends, outside, and learning a new skill or honing an old one. We are offering one week of summer soccer camp: July 15-19. The week of camp will be hosted at Whitefield Academy . Both half day (8-12pm) and full day options (8-3pm) are available for parents for every week. We have Extended Care for any families needing to drop off before 8am or pick up after 3pm. Register for our Recreational Camps here . Register for our Competitive Camps here . Don't know which camp is right for your child(ren), click here . Note: There are camp discounts for current Whitefield Academy employees, Home School families, and Church of the Apostles members. Please email me to receive a discount code before completing registration.

Schedule "Stuffing" I heard one of our pastors provide a great way to explain our over-scheduled lives in America yesterday at church. He labeled our overly fast-paced, anti-restful, not present with one another lives by the term schedule stuffing. I thought it was a great way to describe how things have become for most American families who do not intentionally focus on scaling back what they are doing with their and their children's days, months, and years as family units. Imagine you are going on a trip and have one small suitcase to fill. That suitcase doesn't get to decided what goes in it, it just has to function properly with what is put inside it. You gather all your "essential" items and place inside the suitcase. Then you decide that you should probably grab this and that just in case, so you start jamming in more and more. Eventually, you are sitting on the suitcase, using your entire weight of your body to jam that last "must have" item into the bag. When you finally get it all zipped up (a miracle in and off itself), you look at it and think to yourself, "phew, I'm glad that's over...all packed!" The suitcase though has no room for anything else and is almost ready to bust a seam. You have to now gingerly place it in the car, because you know with one wrong move, a massive explosion (and busted bag) will ensue, because of the jostling around in the car. This (hopefully funny) example is not meant to beat anyone over the head for doing alot of things with their lives. It's meant to serve as a gentle reminder (to myself included) that we should take inventory of what we are signing up for and most importantly why we are signing up. What a great way to approach describing why we are only offering one week of summer camp instead of two or even three or gosh, even four! I mean, we really should "go big or go home," right? Isn't getting bigger, offering more, providing extra this and that, better ultimately for our kids, so that they stay active and healthy, stay competitive amongst their peers, and not be bored so they don't get into trouble? We couldn't agree less, here at Technika Academy! But I haven't always felt like this...it's a grace that I've come to witness so much unhealthy "fruit" of life always on the go, contracted out to someone else to entertain, raise, instruct, and coach our children. So, why aren't we offering more weeks of camp to everyone? Doesn't everyone know and really feel that life lived so busy and quickly isn't the way we want it? Shouldn't we make sure that registration numbers are "good" by providing enough options for parents to choose between if they can't attend the only week we are offering? And what about the lost training that could have been happening if we did offer one more week of camp? Our kids are going to be behind their peers! (gulp). What are we communicating is important to our families? Well, a good indicator of that is just looking at your weekly and monthly calendar. Before we list the reasons that we are not offering more weeks of camp, let me say loud and clear, because I've been in the sports (soccer specifically) world since I could barely run, that if your child misses out on one or two or even an entire summer of "extra training," that they WILL BE JUST FINE, and that I've never witnessed in all my years any player gaining so much ground (or losing it) over the course of one week of training that their career is now on an entirely different path. If anyone tells you or sells you differently, start running the other way! So, here are the reasons we are not offering any more weeks of camp this year: 1) Last summer was super busy for us , and we want to intentionally slow down a bit (we could have a slower year in 2024 and offer more camp weeks, but we're taking just a year at a time for now:)) 2) We want others to enjoy more family time , and not more schedule stuffing, just because something exists to sign up for. "If you build it, they will come," is a true statement in the youth sports industry. We realize that whatever we offer will "pull" the interest of someone and we take that seriously. But we also realize that having somewhere to put your kids while you work is very important and we want to balance that appropriately by offering an outlet. 3) We desire that relationships between family members take more of a priority , even though we realize that relationships take time, effort, which make it easy to put in second place. Being present with your family members is more important than offering them the latest, greatest (fill in the blank). They want you around and not someone else. 4) Kids need time to engage in "unstructured play. " I know that seems scary, because they are going to say the parent dreaded words...."I'm Bored!!" But that's ok. You can live with that and it's good for them (any you). 5) We have noticed kids and parents burning out with life's demands and don't want to be part of that problem, but hope to be part of that solution. 6) We have noticed that the relational living that we are meant to do is taking a back seat because we are simply too tired from everything else. So take a moment to check your schedule and your children's. Is it filled up so much that you have to schedule in down time? Maybe it's too filled. Or maybe scheduling in down time is exactly what you need to achieve some rest in your life and your kid's. If we have offended you in any way, please give me a call at 404-645-0028 and we can chat about i! Our goal is not that we condemn anyone for what you are doing, but provide you with something to chew on as you prepare for your upcoming summer plans! We'd love to see you at our July camp if you are able to make it, and it fits well into your schedule. In the months to come, we'll be taking a stab at starting (and hopefully finishing) walking through our core values again and giving you a closer look at who we are at Technika Academy, so read over our Character value below. -Amy Feigl, Executive Director