After a trip to the NCAA Division II semifinal in the 2015 season, expectations are high for the Grand Valley State football team in 2016 and beyond. The Lakers want to be a title-contender every year, and the best way to ensure long term success is by recruiting.

GVSU will be one of over 60 schools in attendance at the Sound Mind Sound Body Football Camp in Detroit, Michigan on June 9-10. This camp will feature some of the top athletes in the region that are looking for exposure to some of the top schools in the country, across all divisions.

“There is a wide range of prospects there,” GVSU head coach Matt Mitchell said. “There are guys that have multiple offers from power five schools, top 200 national recruits, and players that will likely play at the Division III level and everything in between.”

With numerous football camps throughout the summer, the Sound Mind Sound Body camp has been a frequent stop for Mitchell and the GVSU staff every year.

It is not only important to the coaches to be in attendance, it is a big deal for the players as well.

“It is a great way to compete and to know where you sit against some of the best competition in the state and the Midwest,” said GVSU wide receiver Brandon Bean.

The players receive exposure to different programs, but also different styles of coaching. Some of the individual drills throughout the camp are run by coaches in attendance.

“As much as it was for (the GVSU coaches) to get a chance to see me and my athletic ability, it was a good chance for me to get a feel for who they were and how they coached,” Bean said. “I had a feel of how they did things before I got to Grand Valley.”

While most football camps are strictly to showcase an athlete’s athletic ability, the Sound Mind Sound Body camp focuses on off the field development of athletes as well.

“As much as it was preparing us for success on the field and how to make it, off the field, they were teaching us the same thing,” Bean said, “how to survive and how to be a man.”

This full experience approach is why it is one of the top camps in the region. It gives the athletes more than drills and techniques—It gives them essential life lessons to take with them in order to be successful in college.

“It’s not just about talent and skills,” Mitchell said. “It is more about the development of the complete student athlete.”

The Sound Mind Sound Body camp features a number of high-profile speakers. In past years speakers included: Antonio Gates, Detroit native and tight end for the San Diego Chargers; Jim Harbaugh, head coach of the University of Michigan and Urban Meyer, head coach of the Ohio State University.

“A lot of the experiences and opinions that were shared by the speakers, I had never heard anything like that before,” Bean said. “They were very real.”

All of these qualities of the camp makes it ideal for coaches to find the right players to bring into their respective programs, and for players to find the university that fits them best.