Virtual to Reality

FIFA Soccer / Soccer camp

Your kid has tons of game, but it’s not the kind that will get him anywhere on the field. He plays enough soccer to bend it like Beckham, as long as Beckham comes complete with a controller. Nurture his passion for soccer and give him some pointers by pairing him up with a coach who’s brushed elbows with the pros.

The Boulder Rapids Summer Soccer Camp for youths ages 4 to 16 is under the direction of Head Coach Peter Ambrose, who says talent is key, but playing as a team is the winning formula. And he would know. With 10 years of experience as the head coach for the Colorado Rapids Soccer Team, and seven years coaching CU men’s soccer, he’s put more than 50 players into professional contracts. Two of his former players, Robbie Findley and Clarence Goodson, also played on the USA World Cup team in South Africa.

The camp takes place for five, four-day session starting June 10 in Boulder at the Pleasant View Fields Sports Complex—a field Ambrose calls the best in the state. It also offers two, four-day camps at Willow Farm Park in Longmont starting on June 17. In both, kids will participate in groups with a seven-to-one, student-teacher ratio and they’ll learn, among other things, how to ditch the screen and light up the field with a legit soccer match.

Minecraft / Crafting games

OK, so there is no hope of getting your child away from the screen. He forgets to eat, you have to remind him to drink and he is desperately in need of a shower. Why? He is addicted to building and exploring worlds on the popular game Minecraft. You have a true gamer on your hands. But here’s the good news: he can put all that knowledge to use. At iD Tech Camps at CSU, youths ages 7 to 17 can learn the inner workings of their favorite games in camps starting June 10.

iD Tech Camps offers programs like 3-D game design where kids ages 9 to 12 get a chance to learn how to host their own server and install and manage Minecraft mods that change and innovate the game. We love that kids get to become better at this game while learning how to design their own modifications.

Also available are programs like Role-Playing Game Design for youths ages 9 to 12 where they learn how to create epic adventures easy enough for beginners, but powerful enough for advanced game developers. Youths 13 to 17 years old can also learn how to create their own blocks to build worlds in Minecraft through the program Game Modding and Java Coding.

There is a plethora of options at iD Tech Camps. From video game creation to developing iPhone apps, programming robots or making movies, the only limitation is your child’s imagination.