D. Camp Chaperones

D. camp

Iowa Soccer's D. Camp is a wildly popular overnight experience for players in the eligible birth years.  It's a residential, soccer-filled experience held on the campus of Grinnell College.  D. Camp is intensive with technical, tactical, and physiological sessions, but also so much fun.  Every year the 180 boys and 180 girls spots fill within minutes of registration opening.  Maybe it's the 9v9 World Cup?  Maybe the 4v4 competition?  Or...the dining hall food...?!

Chaperone Details

Chaperones serve a critical role in ensuring a great camp experience.  We put the camp coaching staff in charge of the soccer stuff, but we put the parent chaperones in charge of the kids!

• As you consider volunteering, keep in mind the long days are hot and humid, but guaranteed fun!  Each year we have a solid group of returning chaperones who attest to the great experience they also have at D. Camp.
• As part of registering your camper in the UltraCamp system, there is a question in your account that asks if you would like to volunteer. 
  • You may fill out your interest in this section in advance of registering for camp, or circle back to it in the days following your child's confirmed registration for camp.
• The typical timeline for determining chaperone selection is mid-April.
  • Those who volunteered will be contacted to confirm interest and availability, we'll verify background check status, and from there final selections will be made. 

• Risk management drives our eligibility requirements
  • Only females may chaperone at Girls' camp
  • All chaperones must pass a background check
• Chaperones need to be available throughout the duration of camp, including being onsite several hours before camp opens on the first day.

• Chaperones are assigned groups of campers that are organized by dorm floor and by daily training group.  Campers are accounted for multiple times daily between these two groups.
• There is a chaperone on every floor of the dorms the campers are housed in.  Chaperones are put in a single room and do not bunk with their child, however they are placed on the same floor as their child unless requested otherwise.
• By design, we also have "free" chaperones - those who are not assigned groups.  This provides an extra support system to guide the chaperone staff whose main responsibility is eyes on the campers, keeping them accounted for.
• It is a luxury, but we also look to fill a Media Chaperone position, with this person's main role being to capture media and put together the D. Camp video which is shown to the campers on the last day, put on YouTube, and linked to from our website.

• In the weeks leading up to D. Camp, the D. Camp Director will email the chaperones an orientation guide.
• On the first day of D. Camp, we meet several hours before camp opens to pass out your gear and swag, and to walk through the finer details of your responsibilities. Time/place details will be emailed to the chaperone group.