Our first Friday came quickly. It's hard to believe camp has been in session for six days. Yesterday was fantastic. The weather was good. It wasn't the prettiest day and because of the cloud cover the temperatures didn't rise. We had a long and very successful day!
We gave out more camper of the day awards at morning meeting. Yesterday's crew once again exhibited unselfish qualities and good sportsmanship. One of the other topics at morning meeting was about skits. At the weekly campfire five or six teams will perform a skit. The team has all week to work on them. Coach Alexander stressed the importance of not singling out people and hurting feelings and suggested they create a skit which everyone would find humorous. After one week of camp there is certainly a lot of material to work with!
Once the meeting was finished the groups walked down the hill together. The week's physical activity has caught up with most everyone. Normally after the morning meeting teams are racing down the hill to get the games started but yesterday morning they seemed to move slower than normal. As the course of the day went on things picked up. I'm quite certain it was the excitement of the first campfire which kept everyone going!
There's still one undefeated team at camp. Notre Dame gave them a challenge during yesterday's afternoon football game but could not defeat them. As of 8 o'clock last night, Oregon is still undefeated in all sports. At one point in the football game Notre Dame was ahead 12-7. Oregon was driving but turned the ball over on an interception. ND had a chance to increase their lead but they turned it over close to Oregon's end zone. Oregon ended up scoring on their next drive to pull ahead 13 -12. This would be the final score of the game. Wow... How 'bout them Ducks?
Other notable games include two overtime matches during the afternoon session. UNC and West Point played a single overtime in lacrosse. In the end, West Point defeated UNC 11-10. West Point has quite the "B" team in lacrosse. the B team is made up of younger guys and/or less experienced. Sometimes there is just a team with a lot of skilled lacrosse players. We try to spread out the talent, but when you have to factor in age and size it becomes difficult. Additionally, the 'x' factor or 'unknown quality' is that we also rely on the applicants' ratings 1-5 being accurate. One persons interpretation of a 5 might be different than the next. So far we think the teams are all relatively well matched. In the end, the championships just might come down to 'who wants it most'!
Inside on the dodgeball court Penn State and Auburn had to play 7 games in order to determine the winner. Auburn won four of those games so they were the victors!
Last night's campfire was a blast! It takes five mini buses to get all the kids down to the site. Once they all arrive I park and walk down. The place was ROCKIN'. 192 campers and dozens of counselors can really make a lot of noise. Traditionally, campfire night begins with the lighting of the 'W'. The entire camp begins to chant "Fire it Up" and then "Burn Baby Burn".
Coach Alexander introduced last night's MC's, DeTrea Smith and Jack Sari. They did a respectable job for their first night keeping the crowd entertained between skits and awards. Camper of the Week awards were given. Many of last night's awards went to younger members of the teams. Each team gives this award to a teammate with qualities such as, helpful on dorm, a good friend, thoughtful, unselfish, and always does the right thing. After a conference gave their awards, a team would come out and do a skit. The entire camp votes at the end of the campfire to determine the winning skit. The conference with the winning team gets four points added to their total. This helps a conference to win the "conference cup" which is awarded at the end of the camp. Additionally, points are awarded to the conference with the cleanest rooms for the week. Yes, we do inspect rooms - daily! Campers and coaches are expected to keep their rooms picked up and their beds made every day. The first week is always a little 'shaky' but once the teams realize we really do give a pizza party to the team with the cleanest rooms, then it becomes quite the competition. We hope the habit of cleaning rooms and making beds is one they take home with them.
It's Saturday so enjoy the weekend! We're just doing our thing here and will continue to do so for the next several days. The kids are making memories and friends which we hope will last a lifetime. Enjoy!
