All the young campers start building friendships early on by getting to know each other and their group leads very well. By day three, they are already joking around and enjoying being with each other.

Over the week-long camp, the campers rotate between stations that focus on certain aspects of baseball. Each station is led by an U18 player or coach with the skills to help the campers improve.

However, not all the stations are just strict training. 

Starting the day at 9 a.m., the groups are sent to different parts of the field to warm up. Rather than being typical warm-ups, these stations were games intended to keep the campers engaged while preparing them for the day ahead.

Some of the games included “jail tic-tac-toe” and ultimate baseball — baseball's version of ultimate frisbee. Participating in these gave the kids a way to have fun and stretch their muscles while still incorporating baseball.

Coach Karl explains, "Our goal here is just to make it a fun experience. One of the things that a lot of people don't think about is they're going to learn how to operate as a team. You know, how to share. So all of life's experiences can be had at the camp as well."

Later stations were targeted at more specific aspects typical of baseball. Everything from batting practice to shortstop drills and quick ball release. All of which the campers rotated through roughly every 15 minutes.

Each day, the camp would have a competition to see who was the best at certain things, such as ball velocity, ball control and exit time. Each of the winners in the categories would receive sweatbands to keep.

Along with these competitions, all group leaders selected one camper to participate in an event at the end of every day. The game was to see who could correctly grab a ball that was hit and throw it from third base to first base. The camper who was able to do this the most times in a row received a Detroit Tigers necklace after winning.

Helping lead the camp and stations were coaches of Detroit Tigers teen baseball teams.

Coach Mike Brown helped lead many different stations throughout the camp. He was able to give guidance to help the kids in many aspects.

But it’s not just about making them the best players at this camp. Both Coach Karl and Coach Brown agreed that this camp was more than baseball. 

“Let the kids come out and enjoy the game, enjoy building skills, enjoy building some friendships they make. Some guys meet guys for the first time, and you know, they show camaraderie out there,” said Coach Brown.

Coach Karl agreed, saying, “Just walking around, getting to go onto Comerica’s field, getting to go into the dugout. You know, that's a cool experience. And I think back to when I became a fan when I was six, seven years old. These kinds of things, you know, their tiger fans for life now, right?”

This camp isn’t hosted to find the best players around. Its purpose is to help develop the campers as not only baseball players, but also as people. Even though you're paying for the training, you're also paying for the experience, the memories and lastly the ability to say you stepped up to the mound at Comerica Park.