On Monday morning August 5th USA Bandy, The Minneapolis Storm and Camp Directors Steve Jecha/Win Mitchell, Mary Kelly welcomed a record 130 boys and girls skaters to the 20th annual Swedish/American Summer Bandy Camp at Richfield Ice Arena. The camp was founded in 1999 by Chris Middlebrook and Nancy Nelson with 29 skaters and has since grown under the leadership of Jecha to arguably the finest summer bandy camp in the world.

The week long camp includes two on ice sessions per day together with dryland training. In addition, there is mini golf and pool day at the Richfield pool on Wednesday afternoon.

"Our bandy camp is more than just bandy as it includes an introduction to the Swedish culture and language" Jecha explains. "We have strong ties to Swedish bandy. We have Swedish kids at the camp each year. Two times we have had entire Swedish youth teams come over for the camp. Each year we bring over Swedish instructors to work with the kids" The 4 Swedish instructors this year include Swedish Youth Bandy Director Lars Wennerholm, who is back for the 20th consecutive year. "Lars has been a major part of the bandy camp since year one" Jecha emphasizes. "He is fantastic with our kids." In addition, bandy Hall of Famer Jasper Felder(who has also won 7 Red Bull Crashed Ice World Championships) is teaching at the camp for the first time. Joining Lars and Jasper are two professional players from GT76, Andreas Lagersson and Jorgen Andersson. Current and former US Men's and Women's national team players will also be working with the kids each day.

In conjunction with the Swedish American Bandy Camp Jecha also brings boys and girls youth teams to Vasteras, Sweden every two years in October to play both bandy and hockey (with the next trip in October 2020). The majority of the skaters at the bandy camp come from the Minneapolis Storm Youth Hockey Association. The Storm strives to be more than just another hockey organization in Minnesota and has a sister program relationship with the Vasteras Hockey Club and the Tillberga Bandy Club. "The cultural and sport exchange and friendships that have been made over the years is magnificent" Jecha continues. He also proudly points out that many of the camp alumni have skated for the USA in boys and girls world championships, five of the camp alumni have also skated for the USA in the Men's World Championships and 5 alumni for the USA Women's team that competed this past February in the University Olympic Games in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. In addition, at least 8 other camp alumni have skated for US Men's national champion teams.