Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep # 151 Inside nextlevel Camps: Choice, Coaching, And Community
Summer doesn’t wait for your schedule, so we built a camp that bends with it. We sit down with Ed Metzendorf, founder of nextlevel Camps, to unpack how a choice-first model lets kids pick what they love each day—basketball at 10, DJ at 11, fencing after lunch—and why expert coaches change the game for real skill growth. If your family juggles travel teams, vacations, and late practices, you’ll hear how half days and flexible passes make camp feel possible again without losing quality.
Ed shares the path from creating camp software in Manhattan to running four day camps across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. We dig into the facilities that unlock serious variety—gyms, turf, dance studios, kitchens, and labs—and how that infrastructure keeps days smooth when weather or construction hits. You’ll hear the origin stories behind electives like fencing and even a yo-yo program, plus the “Try a Tuesday” tradition that nudges kids to step outside their comfort zones. The result: genuine discovery, better fundamentals, and the kind of confidence that carries into school and team life.
We also revisit the wild summer of COVID and the launch of “nextlevel To You,” a backyard micro-camp model that delivered thousands of two-hour sessions across three states. That pivot sharpened the team’s logistics and proved that great instruction can meet families anywhere. Along the way, Ed opens up about the realities of building a seasonal business—grassroots marketing, proactive communication, and why word of mouth remains the strongest growth engine. If you’ve been weighing town rec, travel-heavy weeks, or just need a smarter plan for July, this conversation offers practical insight and fresh ideas.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s planning summer, and leave a quick review to help more local families find us.
nextlevel Camps
Ed Metzendorf
914-341-1488
Mailing address:
Next Level Camps,
2005 Palmer Ave #277
Larchmont, NY 10538
Summer Addresses:
The Ursuline School
1354 North Ave
New Rochelle, NY
IONA Prep Grammar School
173 Stratton Rd
New Rochelle, NY
Saddle River Day School
147 Chestnut Ridge Rd
Saddle River, NJ
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Doug Drohan:Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I am your host, Doug Drawn. I'm the owner of the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. And today we have a fun guest. You know, it's cold out, it's snowing, raining, depending on where you are. But we're going to think about camps in uh, you know, in the beginning of December. It's Ed Metzendorf, the owner of nextlevel camps. Ed, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Yeah. You know, people live 10 for two, they say. That's a that's a big camp saying, 10 for two, right? What does that mean? It means you know, 10.
Doug Drohan:They live, they live for the two months of summer.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Doug Drohan:Yeah. I know it's it's kind of rough living where we live, but uh hey, you know, it's getting warmer every year, so maybe it's more exactly. Maybe I'll become a year-round business soon, you know. Yeah, yeah. Well, you could do winter camps, right? So how did how did you get into so I I guess let's back up like next level camps. What is next level camps all about?
Speaker 2:Right. So next level camps, we run four um summer camps, uh, two in Westchester, New York, one in Bergen County in in Saddle River and Saddle River Day School. And then we also have one in Fairfield, Connecticut. They're uh what I describe as skill-based elective date camps where the kids come and pick and choose from a variety of different activities every single day. We we sort of go with the motto of freedom of choice. We really want to expose the kids to lots of different things, different types of activities, not just from sort of your typical sports, which we obviously do and arts and that kind of stuff, but introduce the kids to things like DJ and and uh fencing and some of those kind of sort of you know, slightly different types of activities to give them an opportunity to try something outside their comfort zone.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, yeah. I mean, when I when I go on your website, you see uh you see soccer, you see baseball, um, you know, like you said, some of the typical sports, but uh I mean a dance, lacrosse, which you know, more kids are doing much to the show, and baseball players who can't get enough kids to play anymore because they're playing lacrosse. Um so I mean, is it an all-day camp? Like how does it work? Are you go for the day?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so well, you know, yeah. So camps typically a full day is nine to four. Uh, my business model is a little different from some other camps in the sense that I I've tried to create people are busy nowadays, right? Uh, parents and kids are running around doing for better or for worse, they're doing lots of different things. So uh I I offered whatever a traditional week, a traditional day, Monday through Friday, nine to four, but I also offer half day options. And then what's become very popular is what what I call these flex passes. So parents can sign up for a certain amount of days during the course of summer and just sort of show up whatever they want. So if they want to, you know, if they work you know, two days three days a week and they can't want their kids to just come to camp Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday because they want to do camp mom or dad on Monday and Friday, great. If they need to fill in a day or two between a vacation or something else, they can come for a day or two here or there. And um, you know, it's it's it's been a very popular uh offering to families. My my camp directors aren't always thrilled with it, but uh um we we make it work and uh you know again we want to give the kids an opportunity to either have a great week, great, great day, whatever it might be, great few hours.
Doug Drohan:Yeah. So do they uh do they drive themselves there or or they don't I don't typically offer transportation at any of my properties?
Speaker 2:Okay, so you know what's really nice is I'm at four awesome schools locally. I'm at Saddle River Day School, which is obviously a beautiful school, and be able to offer uh the kids and families, you know, lots of great facilities, not just a beautiful soccer field or basketball gym, but be able to use a dance studio, uh, you know, room to do STEM projects. Do we have a big cooking program, which we use their kitchen for, uh, big theater program, that kind of stuff, and obviously a lot of grassy areas to do different types of things. From um, you know, we might run a yoga class under a tree. If it's raining, we'll run it in the gym. So nice, nice. Just to just to backtrack a little bit how I got into this, because I think that's sort of what you asked, and right and me as my ADD self are all over the place here. But um, I had a uh summer camp software business for 15 years from about 2000 to 2000, well, 14 years, 2000 to 2014. I was uh lucky enough to start it with a few people back then in 2000. So I did that for 14 years, and then I decided that was in Manhattan. I was living in Westchester, and I just sort of decided it was time to try something a little bit different. So in 2015, I I launched my first camp here in Westchester. We actually just celebrated our our 10-year anniversary last summer. Um then we expanded in Westchester and then to New Jersey and then to Connecticut. So that's sort of my background, has always been sort of in the in the summer camp space in a variety of different capacities. And when I was building the software business, I got to speak at a lot of conferences, meet meet a lot of camp people, learn about their businesses. And obviously, I always coach my kids in sports and stuff like that. And I just sort of felt like it was a great opportunity to try something a little bit different, which I did, and fortunately for me, it's been successful. And uh we average about 12 or 1300 campers during the course of summer between the sites, and uh I think we've created uh an excellent product.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, yeah. Um, so I used to work summers at Trinity School in Manhattan. I don't know if you ever, so I know it well, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Doug Drohan:I worked uh I guess two or three summers, but you know, interesting thing about I guess you called summer camp at a private Manhattan school is that we did stuff on the rooftop. Right. We would go to Central Park, we would uh, you know, the summertimes. I mean, the good thing about Trinity is they had a turf field on their roof. Um and t and tennis courts, I think. Yeah, yeah, tennis, and they had a pool, they had a full right like that's why I think a lot of the parents sent their kids there. Uh I knew I worked part-time, I was in the city, going to college in the city, and I knew a guy that was the athletic director for Alan Stevenson school on the east side, and then he had a job in the summer working at Trinity School, and then I worked there for a couple summers. It was great. I mean, I got I got to know what an au-pair was. I mean, I'm I'm a I'm a kid from Long Island, you know. I didn't know what an all-pair was. You know, we didn't have nannies where I grew up, and then all the kids get picked up with their nannies and au pairs, and um, but yeah, it was interesting. So um, so so Saddle River Day School, I know they're doing some construction there right now, they're doing some major uh capital projects, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they did. They they're in the midst of a project, which was certainly going on last summer, but you know, like I mean, you know, they're pretty easy to deal with, and like all summer camps, uh, you know, we we make we make adjustments on the fly, right? I mean, we you know, fortunately for us where the where their major construction project was going on was actually an area where we we really didn't use the only thing that really affected for us was our our tennis courts, and so we were just not able to run tennis outside. We we used uh a gym, we ran our tennis program in the gym, so we had to modify that. But really, everything else that that we did really wasn't affected. There were a few things we had to move slightly, but right um, you know, I think I hope it will be done, or certainly very close to being done by by next summer. Um and it's gonna be, I'm sure, an amazing place. Um, it's uh I think a sort of a STEM technology enrichment type building where they're gonna be able to do a lot of new things, probably AI kind of stuff and computer stuff. So in innovation center probably is the the proper term for it, but uh I don't know how much we'll use of it, especially as it's brand new. But um, yeah, it should be great, and and hopefully that won't die down. But it really actually, you know, knock on wood, it really just didn't affect things much. I've had to deal with that in other places. I mean, schools are always doing some things during the summer. So again, can't people sort of learn you have to be flexible to do this type of business in a variety of different ways? You're you're always sort of dealing with some sort of hiccup, the weather, whatever it might be.
Doug Drohan:So COVID. I mean, you were around during COVID, right?
Speaker 2:So I was, yeah. COVID actually was very interesting uh for me in the sense that uh I sort of created a new program, which we did in Bergen County, in Fairfield County, and also in Westchester. That was the summer, you know, the main summer of COVID was like in April, all the sleepaway camps sort of canceled. So everybody, you know, so no one, all the kids that typically go away to sleepway camp were going to be around during the summer. So we I created a business called Next Level to You, which in essence was I asked families to get six or seven kids, you know, you're you're familiar with from your neighborhood and you're comfortable with. And we'll run we ran two-hour programs out in their backyards all summer. If they were sporting kids, it was more sporty, if it was artsy, it was more artsy. And we literally, I literally ran 2,000 programs uh during that summer in three different states. I mean, the logistics uh of that, I I sort of joke with people now that you know I feel like I I could sort of run Golden Sachs, right? Like I after all the stuff I was dealing with that summer, it was actually my busiest summer. Um, and actually in in Westchester, one of the sites we actually ran traditional camp that that summer also, which taught me a lot um because we had to run everything outside. So it really taught me like, hey, you don't always have to run your dance class in the dance studio if it's beautiful. I they love it just as much under a tree or you know, whatever it might be. So um obviously it was a difficult time for everybody, but from a from a camping perspective, I actually learned a lot and learned how to, you know, again, solve different things very quickly on the flight.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, I mean, it was uh a good um, you know, a good learning it was it was adapt or die, I guess is the way you can look at it. Yeah, exactly. Some people didn't survive it, and um yeah, I was I was surprised at how many businesses quickly went under. I think those are the ones that were high, you know, had a lot of debt and needed cash flow, and as soon as that cash flow stopped coming in, they they couldn't survive. So a lot of big box gyms and things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Doug Drohan:So Saddle River. Um, so you started 10 years ago in Westchester. When did you guys branch out to Saddle River? You've been there. This will be our eighth summer there. Okay. So why why Saddle River?
Speaker 2:Why'd you pick that spot? I wanted to move to Bergen County. Obviously, it's a beautiful school. Um, and the opportunity was there at that point. They had, I think, run a very small summer program on their own, but sort of only in June, like when the private schools had ended before the public schools had ended. Okay. Um, and so again, sort of the all the stars aligned, you know. Um, you know, which has sort of happened at most of my places, right? Like a lot of, you know, some schools do their own things. Um, some schools don't want anybody on property, some schools want to, you know, do construction. So, you know, finding places that you're comfortable running with that make sense from a financial perspective for all parties, um, you know, is not so easy uh necessarily. So, but you know, I targeted Bergen and I targeted targeted that school, and it and you know, fortunately for me, it's worked out, and I believe it's been a nice relationship over the years.
Doug Drohan:I mean, geographically, your your position in a place where because people are driving, dropping their kids off and picking them up. I I'd imagine nobody wants to drive more than a half an hour, but within Yeah, I mean, I always, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. I mean, I I get some kids from Rockland.
Speaker 2:Um, Saddle River's not far from Rockland. Yeah, so I'll get some kids from Rockland and uh, you know, you know, again, at all my places you get sort of these random people sometimes that you know from you know, in your case, maybe someone from Montclair but works in Birkin County, so they're coming up here every day, so they're gonna drop off their kid. But yeah, most of the kids, as you said, sort of geographically, especially when you don't offer busing are coming, you know, within a 20 to 25 minute radius, because it you know, logistically it makes sense.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, and I think you know, Saddle River, like from the eastern part of Burton County, it's only like 15 minutes away. So, um, and then the western part, it's it's centrally located in northern Burton County. So I think it's a good spot. Yeah, yeah. And there's as you said, when you drive by, you see all this big open space, it's it's really nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know, these relationships hopefully uh I think become a win-win um for everybody. I mean, the obviously I pay a fee to the school to use the properties, but at the end of the day, the schools also appreciate the opportunity to get you know a lot of kids. You know, most of my kids when I run these camps at schools, they're not typically a lot of kids from the school. I mean, I'll get a I'll get a handful, maybe it's 10%, and you know, I'm just sort of guessing there, but you know, the uh the business opportunity, so to speak, for the schools is to get these kids that you know maybe uh on campus to see how great their facilities are that potentially could be interested in the school and could potentially enroll. And and that's obviously a nice thing for the schools to to to allow these kids an opportunity that they may not have and and get on campus and see these awesome facilities and then you know potentially enroll at the school later down the line.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, yeah. And I think also the um, you know, my son used to do a uh all day camp. They picked him up at 8 30 in the morning in Rockland County. He'd come home at like five, and then we have to rush off to baseball or something like that. So once he really got into baseball and it went into the summer, then it was a little too much. Yeah. Uh, and if you're swimming that day and you were pitching that night, you know, it's kind of hard. So um, but that's it.
Speaker 2:Again, the definitely the the summer space has adjusted, and that's why, again, sort of the way I build my business model, like you know, I'm 53 years older when I went to camp, and when most people sort of are my generation went to camp, like you went for seven weeks, right? Like, especially even I'm and I'm talking even more so sleepaway camps. I actually went for eight weeks back then, and yeah, everybody went on June 25th, and everyone came home on August 15th. Now, now there's travel baseball, there's as you said, travel lacrosse, there's swimming, there's all these kind of things, and and everybody's competing not only with with camp, but with all these other options as well. So again, I think you know, offering full day and half day and flexibility and that kind of stuff is really the only main, you know, things make it work. And I get a lot of travel baseball. I actually ironically get a lot of middle school travel baseball kids that come to my camp because at least in Westchester, I can't speak for Bergen as much because I'm just not as familiar. You know, travel baseball doesn't start till four o'clock, right? Or five o'clock.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, you know, nowadays the parents want these middle school kids just sitting on their couch all day on their phone till three o'clock until they have to leave. So get them to camp till 12 or 1 o'clock, then they can go home, relax, have lunch, and then go play their baseball is sort of a you know much more productive day for these kids rather than sitting on their couch till and playing video games till two or three o'clock and then going to play baseball.
Doug Drohan:I mean that you're speaking our language because my son's I mean, that's how my half day program started, to be honest with you. Yeah, he got, you know, we typically go on vacation right after school is out. We come back after July 4th, and then it's like, okay, what are we doing? And you know, there's a town camp kind of thing. It's wreck. I mean, I don't even know what, you know, it's and it's half day, it's from nine to twelve and very inexpensive. So yeah, so yeah, it's good to know that uh you guys have that flexibility in those options.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I mean, listen, there are a lot I always tell people, listen, I I mean, I think I do a very good job, but there are a lot of great options out there, and there's lots of different types of kids looking for lots of different types of things. You know, I sell myself on what I describe as a skill-based program. So when kids are when kids are going to basketball, there's a basketball coach there. When they're going to tennis, there's a tennis coach there. When they go to art, there's an art teacher there. Um, and that's why, you know, I charge what I charge. It's, you know, it's not super expensive relative to some other programs out there, but it's on the expensive side. And then there's obviously great, you know, sort of town less expensive options. It's just a different type of program, uh, typically. Um, but that doesn't mean it's not the right fit for a specific kid. You know, sometimes kids love that and the parents like the flexibility. It's inexpensive for the summer, and the kids sort of go when they want to go, and it is what it is. And if it rains, you know, they don't go because there's no indoor facilities.
Doug Drohan:And you know, it's different strokes for different folks, right? Yeah, no, but I mean the fact that you have like a DJ Academy, you have um, you know, flag football, you've got science. I mean, it is different from typical town, you know, school camp where they're just basically running around and you know, not really doing much working.
Speaker 2:But again, I think at the end of the day, and I've heard this over the over the 10 years, is listen, um, I I think I have a great soccer program, great basketball program, dance art, but like sort of like we've sort of been alluding to this whole conversation, kids can do this stuff all year round now, right? If you're really into baseball, you can play in play indoor baseball in the winter or soccer or whatever it might be. So, not that you wouldn't get anything out of my soccer or baseball program, but to try a DJ or a fencing or um, you know, uh I have a magic program. You know, the story I love to tell in my camp, about my camp, which I think brings it, brings it to light the best, is one year I had a Division I baseball player who was my assistant baseball director, played, I think, at the University of Iowa and was drafted by the Atlanta Braves. So he was like the real deal in terms of baseball, and he was a great counselor. But one day he came in with a yo-yo and was doing all these yo-yo tricks, and and the kids were mesmerized. So literally, I went onto Amazon, I bought 15 yo-yos and I started a yo-yo program. Um and the kids remembered. And I've had kids that tried fencing in my camp and now are on the high school fencing team or do fencing. So again, that I think is what sums up next level the best is sort of again, freedom of choice. Try these different things a little bit outside your comfort zone, and you never know. Listen, they may go to field, they may try field hockey for the first time um and never go back, and that's okay too. I mean, we do something at all our camps called try a Tuesday, where again we encourage the kids to try something outside their comfort zone. You're a sporty kid, go try a theater class, your Narcissy kid, go try a field hockey. Listen, sometimes they go back and they love it, and they do it 10 times during the course of summer, other times they don't, but at least they tried it.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a camp my son went to uh years ago, and they had a theater uh program, and then at the end of the school, I mean the summer camp, they put on a sure uh performance. But because he was only, you know, he one of these flex kids where he did a couple of days or we didn't start in the beginning of the program, he wasn't allowed to do it because he didn't start from day one. Right. But I think I it's too bad because I wanted him to try because it might have been something that he, you know, he said, Oh man, that was I mean, that's why I mean again, my program you know, is a week by week thing.
Speaker 2:So, you know, sometimes for the yeah, we actually my my my director at my camp is a uh Suzanne, who's wonderful and a big theater person. So last couple years we actually started a theater academy and I actually put together uh they they usually work together for about two weeks, only in the afternoons, and they usually put together what I consider an amazing production. I mean, I can't believe what we do in you know 15, 20 hours a time. I mean, she's amazing, and the staff that do it are are so passionate about it. So, you know, we've done we've done different things over the years, which are are are pretty impressive.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, that's that's amazing. So um, so what has it been like? I usually ask this to a lot of my uh guests. It's like, what how would you describe you know starting your own business, like that journey of being an entrepreneur and being a business owner? Like you have a couple of some people put it in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I I talk, you know, again, I I've you know, some people like, oh, camp business, like it's not a business, you know, like they don't really understand that it's really a business. I mean, you know, again, I was fortunate enough to to get an opportunity when I started to do this. I did it all by myself, grassroots marketing. I mean, listen, these things are scary, right? Um, you know, I I obviously, you know, especially me, it was a seasonal business. You know, I had no money coming in, right? Like, you know, like this, this was it. Like, I either got kids to come during the summer or this was my business, right? It wasn't, you know, it wasn't something where, you know, I could generate revenue in in different months, so to speak. So um, listen, I tell people it's all about first of all, you gotta have the passion for it, but it it's a lot of at least, you know, what I'm doing now, it's a lot of hustle, right? Like it's a sales job, it's it's grassroots marketing. I mean, I was out there with my lawn signs and my flyers and all that kind of stuff, and setting up um, you know, sort of forums or or or group meet calls with you know a bunch of parents and that kind of stuff, and just explaining my philosophy and what I was trying to do. And unfortunately, I was able able to get it up and running. The first summer we averaged about, it was an all-girls camp and we averaged about 60 girls a week and it went really well. And then we jumped to 90 a week and and so on and so on. Um, but yeah, I mean you again, I I I think you you gotta be able to deal with challenges, you gotta be able to deal with disappointment, but you really gotta really want to do it and and and you know uh be passionate about it. I mean, I think would be the you know is the the lesson that that I've taught people and be flexible, right? Um, you gotta, you know, you sort of learn on the fly. Like my I thought when my camp started they'd be very sports-based. Now, depending on the day and the location, they're you know, they may not be so sports-based. But um, so you have to be flexible and and figure out what your can you know, your your customers want and and and make it work. And you know, the customer's always right. And you know, I've I've I've sort of pride myself, I guess, on on my communication. I'm very proactive, I think, with with families and parents. You know, I I my staff and I, I think do a very good job, but things come up and you know, I try to be on them as much as possible, reach out to the parents, explain the situation, their perspective. And if, you know, obviously if there's some sort of situation, we deal with it, we make adjustments. And at the end of the day, you just want happy customers, right? I want my kids to, at the end of the day, go home, be safe, and have a good time. Like that's what that's what we're all about, you know, in terms of what next level's trying to do.
Doug Drohan:That's great. So, how do how do people find like where would they contact you to watch it? Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:I mean, you can go to, I mean, you can go in terms of New Jersey, since this is mainly where we're talking about, it's next it's next level daycamp nj for new jersey.com is the website, or next leveldaycamps.com is a landing page, and you can go directly there. You know, that's where you can learn a lot about my camp, what you know, watch a video. Um, and obviously my phone number's on there, my email is on there, and I'm I'm happy. You know, most of the parents that before they sign up, I do speak to and explain to them, you know, how a typical day works and answer any questions about, you know, if I have an EMT or a nurse on staff and what the lunch is and how the snacks work and all that sort of typical stuff. And and that that's what I'm here for, and that that's what we do. But you know, at the end of the day, like for a business like mine, especially now, sort of 10 years into it, a lot of it's word of mouth, right? Like I'm I'm fortunate. Again, I I think I've had overall, you know, pretty happy families and they share it with other neighbors and and friends and that kind of stuff. And and that, and that's how I've grown a lot. I mean, obviously, technology's evolved, and there's different marketing um and advertising things people can do. Um, but I think at the end of the day, especially I think for most businesses, but especially mine, it's it's mostly word of mouth.
Doug Drohan:Yeah, yeah. Yep. I mean, I I talk to people all the time, and like word of mouth is is key. It's it's you know, you're not playing you hope for it and you hope it continues. Um but uh well Ed, this was great. I really appreciate you joining us.
Speaker 2:And and when is a good time to start like registering for some early we have early registration now, so people are signing up uh through through the next week or so and they get pretty significant savings. I mean, I have what I call priority registration I do during August, during the last couple weeks of camp. So when kids that are there that want to sign up you know for the next summer can do it. And and right now it's just a deposit. And again, like I don't even ask people to choose weeks nowadays because it's so early for them. Um so people now just put down a deposit literally to save the money, and then in February they'll start telling me when they when they think they're able to come. But again, we're pretty flexible. We try to make it work for everybody. I've customized schedules for people so they can come you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, full day, Tuesday, Thursday, half day to around their swim team or whatever it might be. So again, I I sort of pride myself on my flexibility in terms of enrollment and registration and that kind of stuff. It makes that much a lot easier, yeah. I work from home, so call anytime. All right, sounds great. All right, Ed.
Doug Drohan:Well, thanks very much. Just uh we're just gonna have Chuck take us out, and you and I will be right back. Perfect. Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you. Thank you for listening to the good neighbor pod. Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast out. So thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast. And uh joining us today and go to gnpbergen.com. That's gnpbergen.com.