High school soccer players from across the country and even from Europe descended upon Muhlenberg College recently for a four-day College Soccer ID camp.

The overnight camp had 140 attendees immersing themselves in the college lifestyle, as well as undergoing soccer training and evaluation from coaches across the D-I, D-II and D-III spectrum.

Sean Topping, camp director and head coach of Muhlenberg, has been conducting the camp with the help of Binghamton University head coach Paul Marco for the past six years.

The premise of the camp is relatively new in the world of college soccer, but one that is clearly growing.

“It’s good for kids who are interested in your college to come and see the facilities, but we also have 15-20 coaches from other schools here, so the kids get one stop shopping from a bunch of different schools,” said Topping. “Across the country these camps have really become big. Our numbers have relatively stayed consistent, but we like the size of our camp because we get to know the kids.”

Players are immersed with a soccer curriculum all day long, starting at 7 a.m. with breakfast and ending near 11 p.m.

Between training, games and educational portions all sandwiched around meals, it’s an ultimate college soccer experience for any high schooler looking to play at the collegiate level.

This year’s camp featured players from California, Colorado, South Carolina, Tennessee and even an international from Sweden hoping to make an impression.

James Nicholas was one of the many out-of-towners participating in the camp, as he came from Connecticut to attend.

A high school senior, Nicholas, is just looking for his options and seeing who may be interested in his skills as well.

“I was interested in Muhlenberg and my brother is at Navy and I was hoping for their coach to look at me as well,” Nicholas said. “It’s great to see the campus and meet a lot of the coaches here. I’m playing on a team, coached by some of the Muhlenberg coaches, so I get to see how they are as coaches.”

Paul Marco has worked with Topping every year since the camp’s inception and always tries to instill two core values.

“One we want to have all our players understand the game and where they’re at and maybe help them with a path to move them further along,” Marco said. “Then we add the college piece into that and we try to give them a wider array of what college is like. The exposure they get to different coaches and the lectures at night help them improve as players. We discuss hydration and nutrition, what a recovery day looks like, the college process and introducing them to technology and match analysis. Overall I think it’s a wonderful experience.”

The colleges that were represented at the camp this year included the Naval Academy, Georgetown University, Connecticut College, Arcadia University, Drexel University, Holy Cross, Lehigh University, UMASS, University of Virginia and Yale.