During the summer session, droves of students come onto the Albuquerque Academy campus each day to participate in various sports. Not only are these camps popular with students across town, but also with Academy students. Sports often associated with Summer Session Sports programs held here at the Academy are basketball, volleyball, and swimming. These are the sports that usually see the highest participation rates from Academy athletes. However, rather than direcly participating in the camp as a member, Academy athletes participate in the Summer Session programs usually by serving as a teaching assistant.

“Camps are at a basic level, they are different than high school summer programs,” said athletic director Taryn Bachis. “Camps are more fun, more low-key. A long time ago, we had soccer and basketball geared for older kids, but there are so many camps now. We now have the combination, you can go to camp, then you can go to classes. Most camps are geared for kids 12 and under.”

In terms of actual participation, “volleyball might see the highest participation. I would say there are a lot of sixth and seventh graders,” Bachis said.

Not many camps see significant participation from high school athletes at the Academy as members; however, “a huge amount of kids go and be TA’s here,” Bachis said. “Almost all TA's are from the Academy. We hire some athletes from the high school. For our sports camp, we usually hire one or two adults, and the rest are high school athletes.”

Being a teaching assistant can still be beneficial to an athlete, although “being a worker does not help fitness at all, it helps technique. Sometimes, if you teach [technique], it helps reinforce it. It's in your brain, all you need to do is go practice it,” Bachis said.

According to boys varsity basketball head coach Mike Brown, teaching at a camp can improve fitness as well as technique, “Just being around the weight room can help flexibility...[teaching] is a great experience,” he said. In terms of actual participation, “in basketball, the emphasis is on working on fundamentals; there is a lot of repetition,” Brown said.  “Summer session is more fun oriented; it's to try and develop an appreciation for the game.”

Another popular camp for younger kids is the swimming camp offered at the Academy. Like other camps, “the emphasis is on introducing kids to what it's like to swim on a competitive swim team in an atmosphere of fun,” assistant swimming coach Annette Thies said. However, unlike other camps that employ students, there are fewer current Academy athletes that participate as teaching-assistants. “The swim camp has always been run by one or two Academy coaches and an assistant that is a previous Academy high school state qualifying swimmer,” Thies said. “Current Academy students are hired to teach swim lessons and lifeguard during the summer session.”

Thus, participating in a sports camp as a TA may not always help a high-school athlete's fitness, but it can help improve an athlete's technique. “To get involved, it's a great opportunity for our students here,” Brown said.