Footfire Summer Soccer Camp
Playing Life Academy, 1645 Fourth St, Berkeley, CA 94710
About
Footfire Summer Soccer Camp offers soccer training along with arts and crafts, water-play afternoons, and the Footfire Soccer Tennis Championship. Campers also take part in activities built around the Footfire Soccer Tennis Net created by Nigel Hill, collect an annual T-shirt, and exchange a Footfire friendship bracelet. The camp includes water-play afternoons when counselors are fair game and is described as “powered by passes and popsicles,” with kids coming for the soccer and also eating food prepared at camp.
• Ages: 5–13 years old
• Schedule: Monday–Friday, 9:00 am–5:00 pm, operating at capacity for eight weeks each summer season
Footfire Summer Soccer Camp began as an informal camp in the 1990s so that Carlos Hill’s eldest son and his team could continue soccer training through the summer, and it officially launched in 1995 as a three-week program, expanded to four weeks in 1999, and has operated at capacity for eight weeks each summer since 2009. The camp is led by founders Carlos Zensay Hill, director, coach, and instructor, and Caroline Duke, director, camp chef, and art director, with Nigel Hill serving as program consultant and field and equipment coordinator. Carlos Zensay Hill holds a B.A. in Spanish Literature from Dartmouth College, an M.S. in Educational Administration from SUNY Albany, multiple black belts and advanced training in several martial arts, and a National Soccer Coaches Association of America “A” level license. Caroline Duke holds a B.A. from Mills College and an M.A. from UC Berkeley in Asian Art History, and Nigel Hill is a youth coach and referee. Footfire’s mission states that it is more than a soccer camp and is organized around great soccer training with expert coaches, using unique skill-building exercises and games that emphasize play over competition, conditioning as a path to minimizing injury, and in-play interaction as an opportunity for gaining social skills, with the goal of building a positive soccer culture and passing on a love of play as a self-motivated and organic path to learning. The program has community roots that include a children’s performing troupe formed by Carlos Hill and Caroline Duke that provided martial arts-based entertainment and workshops throughout the Bay Area to schools, community groups, and corporations. One parent testimonial states that Footfire Summer Soccer Camp was “unequivocally the most fun camp” the parent’s children had ever attended and that two weeks at Footfire turned the parent’s daughter, who had previously had a difficult time getting into physical activity, into “a fanatical footballer.”
Last updated March 20, 2026.
• Ages: 5–13 years old
• Schedule: Monday–Friday, 9:00 am–5:00 pm, operating at capacity for eight weeks each summer season
Footfire Summer Soccer Camp began as an informal camp in the 1990s so that Carlos Hill’s eldest son and his team could continue soccer training through the summer, and it officially launched in 1995 as a three-week program, expanded to four weeks in 1999, and has operated at capacity for eight weeks each summer since 2009. The camp is led by founders Carlos Zensay Hill, director, coach, and instructor, and Caroline Duke, director, camp chef, and art director, with Nigel Hill serving as program consultant and field and equipment coordinator. Carlos Zensay Hill holds a B.A. in Spanish Literature from Dartmouth College, an M.S. in Educational Administration from SUNY Albany, multiple black belts and advanced training in several martial arts, and a National Soccer Coaches Association of America “A” level license. Caroline Duke holds a B.A. from Mills College and an M.A. from UC Berkeley in Asian Art History, and Nigel Hill is a youth coach and referee. Footfire’s mission states that it is more than a soccer camp and is organized around great soccer training with expert coaches, using unique skill-building exercises and games that emphasize play over competition, conditioning as a path to minimizing injury, and in-play interaction as an opportunity for gaining social skills, with the goal of building a positive soccer culture and passing on a love of play as a self-motivated and organic path to learning. The program has community roots that include a children’s performing troupe formed by Carlos Hill and Caroline Duke that provided martial arts-based entertainment and workshops throughout the Bay Area to schools, community groups, and corporations. One parent testimonial states that Footfire Summer Soccer Camp was “unequivocally the most fun camp” the parent’s children had ever attended and that two weeks at Footfire turned the parent’s daughter, who had previously had a difficult time getting into physical activity, into “a fanatical footballer.”
Last updated March 20, 2026.
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