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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

ALABASTER – The Dynamic Development (D2) Soccer Camp is back from June 26-30 and celebrating its tenth year.

“It’s a pretty significant year,” Camp Director Dan DeMasters said. “I can’t believe it’s been it’s been ten years doing it. When we started, we started so small and now we’ve grown so big.”

All boys and girls from ages 5-12 can register. The players will be broken up into age groups of ages 5-6, 7-9 and 10-12.

The registration cost is $240, but higher skilled players from ages 10-12 wanting more training can sign up for the Elite Group, which is $260.

The camp will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday through Thursday of that week and Friday from 9 a.m. until noon. The camp will return to Thompson High School for the fifth straight year.

In addition to the daytime activities, there will also be a Parents’ Night on Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Dan DeMasters will once again lead the camp. He uses drills and games to teach the campers all kinds of soccer skills as well as how to be disciplined in their own training.

“I want them to enjoy the week and have fun,” coach DeMasters said. “And with that, a very close second is to learn soccer and develop some sort of skill within the week. And then third is to have that discipline aspect.”

He has led three straight teams to the Class 7A State Championship from 2015-2017 and coached collegiately at West Chester University of Pennsylvania and Eastern University. He also coached at Oak Mountain before moving to Thompson.

Coach DeMasters played college soccer at Villanova University, where he was named captain and to the All-Region and All-Conference teams. He was also a three-time high school All-American and won Pennsylvania’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 2003.

In addition, coach DeMasters will be joined on the coaching staff by current and former college soccer players from Division I, II and III colleges.

As the years have passed, coach DeMasters has had the chance to coach entire families of soccer players and see camp alumni go on to play collegiately and even come back to coach the camp.

Nevertheless, he still believes the D2 Camp has kept a “homey feel” as it has grown, and he still is hands-on despite having a team of coaches and balancing his coaching role with running the behind-the-scenes aspects of the camp.

“It’s grown in everything,” coach DeMasters said. “It’s grown in numbers, it’s grown in popularity, and just the level of coaches that I have, it’s grown, as well as me and my role, becoming more of a director. But, that all being said, I do like to hop in any time I get a chance, I never want to be that person who just like walks around and sits on a go cart, I want to be out there running training sessions and cheering the kids on and celebrating when they score goals.”

Parents can sign up their kids at dynamicdevelopmentcamps.com. They can also contact d2camps@gmail.com for group or half-day discounts.