Backyard camping

Who doesn’t love summer camp?

And who doesn’t love saving money?

With the economic squeeze continually tightening its grip on metro Detroit, extracurricular spending is bound to take a hit.

That’s why communities should consider themselves fortunate when local coaches host their own summer sports camps — a growing trend in the area.

For the most part, local camps are considerably much more affordable than ones hosted by universities.

And from what I’ve seen, there’s hardly, if any, drop off in instruction.

I attended a few sports summer camps at area universities when I was in school, and after spending some time recently at the Eastside Soccer Camp at Fraser High, I didn’t notice any significant differences.

The Eastside camp, directed by Warren De La Salle boys and Fraser girls soccer coach Thaier Mukhtar, was run in a very similar fashion to the camps I remember going to.

But with a fee of just $150 (including each camper receiving a Nike ball) for five days of training, instruction and competitions, local camps like the Eastside one can’t be beat — unless, of course, the camper wants to be crammed into a stuffy dorm room and feast on collegiate cafeteria food (which I suspect was all just leftovers from the school year) for a week.