While many students are busy moving into and out of apartments throughout the weekend, the ISU volleyball coaches are working just as hard to improve volleyball players in the Midwest.

Cyclone Volleyball Camps is an organization that brings in youth volleyball teams from fifth grade through high school that are getting ready for the upcoming season. The camps feature the Iowa State Cyclones’ coaching staff, who are hosting the events on campus during the summer.

Junior camps are held in early June while high school athletes are able to join camps for certain positions, general skills and competition.

Jesse Klein, a former Cyclone volleyball player and current camp director, details the broader reach the camps have throughout high schools in the Midwest.

“We have a lot of teams come in from Nebraska, and also have some from Minnesota,” Klein said. “We did not have any schools come from Illinois this year, but we get some from there, as well as Missouri.”

This weekend, Team Camp Gold, a two-part competitive camp, was held on campus. The camp focused on skills the first day, and was followed by a tournament on the second day.

“We had 34 teams play in this weekend’s camp,” Klein said. With the newly renovated State Gym, camp organizers would like to increase the amount of teams they can bring in.

“They would have an additional three courts,” Klein said. “We are working with them to expand our camp, and then we would be able to select 40 teams.”

For the high school athletes who are expected to play in college as well, Cyclone Volleyball Camps held general skills camps in the third week of June and the second week of July. Incoming Cyclone volleyball freshman players such as Taylor Goetz and Tory Knuth have participated in those camps.

Trudy Vande Berg, assistant coach for the Cyclones, explained what these camps do to benefit the players.

“In the general skills camp, we have three sessions in three days,” Vande Berg said. “We go through the basic skills and drills that take place during a typical practice. Since a lot of the players are still playing in volleyball clubs that go into June, we have a second camp in July.”

Cyclone Volleyball Camps will also come to high schools interested in hosting camps.

“Satellite camps are when we will have a camp for a certain school. They take place for a few days. Typically we have a staff member and a volleyball player go and host the camp. Sometimes the senior players will just go themselves, but 95 percent of the time both of them will,” Vande Berg said.