One thing I have always preached is that local athletes need to give back to their communities.
I am 65 now and can still remember who the big athletes were at Amador Valley when I was in elementary and middle school. Then when I hit high school, I looked at it as a responsibility to interact with the youth players that would come out to our games, be it high school or club.
After college, I coached and worked camps for soccer, basketball, baseball and football making sure I gave back to the community.
When I hear of local athletes giving back to their community by working with the next generation of athletes, I feel an obligation to give them credit.
Such is the case of former San Ramon Valley athlete Mitch Bruno and his staff of the All You Can Do Sports Camp. The camp is for K-5th grade boys and girls, and the staff is made up of San Ramon Valley High graduates.
“I remember these camps as something I enjoyed as a kid,” said Bruno, who now has two years left at Boise State. “But I never would have thought when we started it would be like this.”
Five years ago, Bruno – then a sophomore at SRV – and a friend started a one-week camp for K-5 boys at Sycamore Valley Park in Danville with 12-15 kids. Year two saw it increase to three weeks of camp with around 20 kids each week.
By then Bruno was running the camp by himself, and the third year saw the numbers grow to four weeks of camps with 30-35 kids per week.
Last year the numbers grew to six weeks and 45-50 campers per week.
And that brought us to this summer.
Bruno added a girls’ version of the camp and has 9-12 girls a week in each of the four-week sessions.
The boys? Now it’s nine weeks of camps with a morning and a separate afternoon session. There are 400 kids signed up over the series of camps.
What started as a camp at Sycamore Valley has grown to three facilities, as Bruno utilizes Los Cerros Middle School and Athan Downs in San Ramon.
What’s the secret? Fun.
“We play recess games,” he explained. “Games like wiffle ball, flag football, kickball, Capture the Flag – anything they play at school – it’s just boys being boys.”
In the day when there is so much pressure on young athletes in high comp situations, All You Can Do Sports Camps is a healthy alternative – just roll out the balls and play.
Bruno has grown the camp through diligence in the Danville community.
“I sponsor eight Danville Little League teams,” Bruno said. “Also, we sit in the parking lot when the Next Level Flag Football takes place, then hand out flyers when the kids come out.”
As the camp’s size has grown, so has the staff size. Bruno has built his staff of former SRV athletes that are all close friends.
“I brought on some high school kids this year as well to keep it youthful and start the next wave,” Bruno explained.
Former SRV athletes at the camp this year are Tyler Peterson (University of Tennessee), Grace Kerr (UC Berkeley), Seamus Deely (UC Berkeley), Dylan Deitsch (Ole Miss), Liz Kerr (UC Davis), Dom Camera (Auburn) and Ava Horrocks (UC Davis).
Two current SRV athletes are Evan Hirst and Tyler Butz. Jake Anderson (Cal Poly) handles photography, and Natalie Shephard (Baylor) takes care of social media.
While the camps help make the summer fun for the athletes, it’s also helped Bruno and his team.
“We’re always learning from the kids,” Bruno said. “It’s helped me a lot. It’s hard to put into words – I’ve always had a stutter and had problems talking with people. Now I can go up and talk with anyone. It’s helped me with my confidence.”
What does the future hold for All You Can Do?
“The whole goal is to go north and south on 680,” Bruno said of expansion to other cities. “We have big dreams – something like the Next Level program.”
For more information on the camps, please visit www.allyoucandosports.weebly.com.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
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