The Griffin First United Methodist Church youth soccer camp got underway on Monday and by the third day of the camp, everyone has gotten a little bit of “soccer fever,” according to camp director Scott Henderson.

“By the third day of camp, all the kids want to do is have fun, eat snacks and oh yeah, listen to me and the other coaches tell them about the game of soccer,” said Henderson, the boys head soccer coach at Spalding High. “Listening to us is almost the last thing they want to do at this point of camp. It’s all in fun, however.”

Henderson, who taught the 2012 camp with the help of Griffin High soccer coach Chris Garland and Spalding High soccer players Dakota Rice and Grant Neel, said this year’s group was a lot of fun to work with.

“There were some campers who attended last year’s camp, but we had some new faces this summer,” he said. “It’s always nice to see new campers come in.”

Henderson and the other coaches taught the kids the fundamentals of soccer, including the toe-tap and other basic necessities of the game. The campers learned to shoot and play defense and they even pretended to be countries in the Euro 2012 matches as they competed against each other in matches. They even were treated to a performance by coach Neel’s dog Abigail, who did a few tricks at the end of Wednesday’s camp.

Just like last year, the talent show was one of the highlights of the camp. All the kids got to participate and perform any talent they have — whether it’s singing, dancing, telling jokes or doing magic tricks. It’s all about the youth having a good time as well as learning the game.

“We had a piano player this year and we also had three boys doing disco dancing,” Henderson said. “It was a lot of fun.”

Annie Grace Rogers, 7, said she enjoyed the camp this year and said soccer is her favorite sport.

“This camp was fun, fun, fun! I learned how to shoot the ball in the net and everything,” she said. “For my talent in the talent show, I did a series of front rolls. I love this camp.”