API Offers Safety And Fun With Established Summer Camps

Whether kids just want to have fun, or they want to take their skills to the next level with ball-handling, fielding or footwork coaching, they can find a summer camp at Athletic Performance Inc. (API) in Gambrills.

A community staple for 20 years, API wants to make sure parents feel safe sending their kids to a professionally run camp that takes precautions to make sure youth are safe, healthy and able to embrace an enjoyable experience.

“The first thing parents want to know is who’s involved with their kids and who’s coaching their kids. Who is this person?” said Stephen Vaught, founder and president of API. “First of all, are they a good coach? Second of all, are they safe? Are they respectful? Do they care about their kids?”

At API, the answer to all the above questions is yes.

Families entrust API each summer with their children’s well-being as they engage in one of several camps, including the All-Sport Kids Academy for all skill levels, sport-specific camps for more focused instruction, Little's Sport Camps for ages 5-7, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) camps.

The following camps run from June through August.

All-Sport Kids Academy

Designed for campers ages 6-14, the All-Sport Kids Academy has full-week camps with full-day and half-day options. Activities include dodgeball, tennis, kickball, volleyball, floor hockey, football, baseball and more. This camp emphasizes learning, fun and sportsmanship with time indoors and outside. Full-day camps run from 8:00am-5:00pm. Half-day camps go from 8:00am-12:30pm and 12:30pm-5:00pm.

Sport-Specific Camps

Kids ages 5 and up can participate in sport-specific camps for baseball, basketball, lacrosse, tennis and softball. These weeklong, three-hour camps are perfect for beginner and intermediate athletes.

Medical Me

New to the camp menu this year, API is partnering with Medical Me, which encourages curiosity, creativity and fun for campers interested in the medical field. Through Medical Me, kids explore everything from teeth and the human body to animal care, diseases and treatments.

They can learn how the brain, heart and lungs work. Or they can learn how to treat a sprained ankle, broken bones or a torn ACL.

“There’s a lot of options for kids,” Vaught said. “There’s a lot of sports options, there’s a lot of enrichment options, and I thought this was pretty unique. This is the first time I’d heard of a camp focused on the medical field.”

Those experiences, especially the ones focused on sports medicine, tie into the activities at API.

“It kind of goes along with what we’re doing, treating and preventing sports-related injuries, so I think there is a lot of synergy there,” Vaught said.

Twenty Years Of Serving The Community

Vaught and his team are celebrating 20 years of API.

“Where we are now was not even part of the equation,” Vaught said with a laugh. “It continuously evolves. From teams to camps to training to everything that we offer, it wasn’t part of the thought process back then. The thought process was strength and conditioning, and that was it. Now we’re multifaceted with a lot of things we offer the community — the kids, parents and families.”

Many of those families have stayed with API.

“I still run into a lot of the kids, and a lot of the kids come back here and work, which is cool,” Vaught said. “We provide employment opportunities to them too. A lot of our baseball players are going to come back and work this summer and coach our kids and our camps.

“I just like the community aspect of it. My current youth baseball director, I started training him when he was 12, and now, he’s 28. He’s running eight of my baseball teams and all of my camps and clinics. So, it definitely all comes full circle.”

When parents send their kids to the Gambrills facility, moms and dads can take comfort in knowing their children are in good hands.

“You know who you are sending your kids to,” Vaught said. “We’ve been here for 20 years. You can feel confident in sending your kids to spend a week at API.”

API is located at 740 Route 3 South in Gambrills. Register for a camp or find more details at www.athleticperformanceinc.com/camps-2. For more information on API camps, contact Kat Van Houten at kat@athleticperformanceinc.com.