Coding Sports Camps Offer Unique Mix of Physical & Mental Development

This coming summer, there are plenty of camps that will cater to children’s physical development, helping them hone one or more athletic skills in individual and team settings.

At the same time, a number of other camps will nurture youngsters’ mental abilities as they gain knowledge in one or more academic or vocational disciplines.

But no program in the area will engage both the physical and mental sides of a child like Coding Sports Camps, a collaboration between Code Play Learn and Legacy Sports Camp to serve boys and girls currently in kindergarten through the 8th grade.

The weekly camps begin on June 8th, with the first three weeks geared toward children from kindergarten through 6th grade, the next week for current 3rd through 5th graders and a mid-July camp for 5th through 8th grade students.

The overarching theme of Coding Sports Camps is “teaming up for mind, body and play”—and responds to a palpable marketplace demand felt by Code Play Learn founder Wil Greenwald and Legacy Sports Camp owner Dan Kane.

“We’re not going into this in the hopes that families will ‘get it,’” Greenwald said. “We’re offering something that parents constantly ask for—full-day physical and mental stimulation.”

Both Code Play Learn and Legacy Sports Camp are based in Oak Park—in fact, their headquarters are only four doors apart from one another. Their neighboring status on Chicago Avenue, between Ridgeland Avenue and Austin Boulevard, was a key ingredient in this unique concoction.

The Monday through Friday program begins daily at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 3:30 or 4 p.m., with an on-site lunch break in the middle.

Greenwald founded his business at 30 W. Chicago Ave. in January 2014. He teaches Integration of Technology into Curriculum as an adjunct professor at Roosevelt University and since 2001 has been a high school computer programming teacher at Maine Township District 207.

He is also a father of three young children and a youth sports coach who first met Kane when his oldest child enrolled in a Legacy Sports camp. Impressed with the quality of Legacy Sports’ instruction and programming, Greenwald approached Kane with the idea of a joint camp a few months ago.

An Oak Park native, Kane is the athletic director of Ascension Catholic School and co-founded Legacy Sports in 2008. The athletic-training operation’s base has been 18 W. Chicago Ave. for the past six years. The space includes 6,000 square feet of play area, where children engage in a range of activities such as hand hockey, countdown dodgeball, treasure island, battleship, capture the flag and soccer.

Beyond the athletic component, Legacy Sports instructors emphasize the development of character-building traits like positive communication skills, teamwork and good sportsmanship.

Through Code Play Learn, campers will spend the other half of the day creating, coding and building their own computer games, apps or robotics. Specifically, they will use Scratch Game Development, MIT’s App Creation Tool, LEGO Robotics and LittleBits Electronics.

Greenwald enjoys helping students become technology-literate as they build a strong foundation for lifelong learning, whether in technology or other disciplines.

“I don’t expect to create the next Mark Zuckerberg,” he said, referring to the Facebook founder. “But my goal is that when kids are playing (the video game) Fruit Ninja and the fruit breaks into 10 pieces, they go, ‘Oh, I know how that works. I may not be able to code that, but I can explain to you what the code is doing.’”

While Coding Sports Camps promises to challenge and engage children in dramatically different ways, a common thread pulses through the entire day: to enable each child to think creatively, reason systematically, and to work and play collaboratively.

Jenny Yang of Oak Park has two sons, 7 and 9 years old, who have been enthusiastic students of Code Play Learn classes since last summer. She is pleased with the Coding Sports Camps option, saying that summer camps tend to be more athletically orientated but that it’s important for children to be mentally stimulated during the school break.

“I do love that they are offering both,” she said. “I think it provides a great balance for the day. It’s a very good option for working parents looking for a full eight hours of programming.”

Independently, both programs tend to attract more boys than girls. However, Greenwald and Kane strongly encourage parents to consider placing their daughters in Coding Sports Camp.

“Nobody debates the truth that there are not enough women in technology,” said Greenwald. “One of the primary reasons is that girls don’t get enough exposure to it, and encouragement in it, early on.”

Space is limited for the weekly camps. For more information on these and other Code Play Learn summer camps available to children K-8th grade, like Minecraft Modding and Early Engineers, please visit www.codeplaylearn.com or call 708-374-8286.

For more information about Legacy Sports Camp, please visit www.legacysportscamp.com or call 312-969-0215.

PHOTO CAPTION: Legacy Sports Camp owner Dan Kane and Code Play Learn founder Wil Greenwald inside each of their respective spaces on Chicago Avenue in Oak Park. Their businesses are only four doors apart from one another.