COLUMBUS, Ohio — The FIFA Women’s World Cup is just around the corner, and the Columbus Crew celebrated by hosting a female-focused college ID camp, which is a camp for high school players that compete in front of college coaches. 

What You Need To Know

  • Columbus Crew hosted college ID day for teenage girls

  • Just under 100 girls attended

  • The girls got to hear from two professional women's soccer players

  • The goal was to help grow the sport for young girls 

Ella Chamberlain was one of the athletes there.

“Feels great to be down there and playing,” she said.

Chamberlain is a 15 year old that will graduate high school in 2026 from Benjamin Logan High School. She explained it was inspiring to have a professional soccer team want to help grow women’s soccer.

“I know a lot of people, a lot of boys at my school, a lot of boys at other schools that get these opportunities. They’re like, ‘oh, yeah I have more ID camps this week,’ or like, ‘it’s my fifth of the summer,” but I never, I rarely hear about girls that come out here and get these opportunities so knowing that there was one in my state so close to where I want to be was just really amazing and it just feels really good,” she said.

The girls had a chance to hear from two professional women’s soccer players from Gotham FC. Delanie Sheehan, one of the players for Gotham FC, said she wished she had events like this when she was younger to bring more representation to women's sports.

“It’s amazing. The growth in the past really couple of years for the women’s game has been great, and I mean, we’re nowhere near where it needs to be, but an event like this where, like you said, there’s a huge focus on when and women’s sports, it’s amazing,” she said.

Former Crew star, Dante Washington, helped facilitate the camp in hopes to increase visibility for young women soccer players. He explained he has hopes for the sport to grow both on a professional and personal level. 

“To be able to have college coaches and then two NWSL players from Gotham FC come and get to hear about their journey and hear from, directly from the college coaches about their experience and their suggestions and recommendations is invaluable. It’s one of the things that again, I have two young daughters and I can’t help but think of seeing them out on the field someday doing the same thing,” he said.

Chamberlain said that she hopes to become a professional player, just like Sheehan and Washington, and that the college ID camp helped make her dreams feel more attainable.