It seemed like every camper arrived at the same time today, having packed an abundance of excited energy to kick off our EC2 camp! After pledging to Dig Deep all week, and firing off 50 good push-ups, we soon met in the gym with our sneakers and water bottles to start the Orientation challenges. Split into five groups, the campers spread out across campus. At one station they had to literally Dig Deep and move 3 yards of dirt 10 feet, in just 15 minutes. At another station they had to hike down to the Mad River, pick out a rock and haul it back up to campus. There was also a station of blind basketball, a Number puzzle station and a juggling station. It was fun to see the campers start to gel as a group.
After some serious carbo loading with a dinner of spaghetti, meatballs, garlic bread, salad, and fruit, it was off to the ELITEAM Woods to learn the Obstacle course, which will be featured on Saturday at the Olympics. Following that, we hit the field for some Agility work with poles. We finished up with some Team relays where we embraced a more “stylish” agility workout, along with a few wipe outs, plenty of fun, and a liberal amount of “penalty pushups” for less than perfect line-ups, cheating or sucking up to Coach Ben. We all definitely reached our goal of 125 push-ups for the day.
COACHES CORNER-
Today was a wacky Wednesday filled with huge grins and enthusiastic campers! Find some highlights from a few mid-afternoon stations below!
Coach Molly added some insight from DIGGIN’ DEEP: Dig deep means digging in! Literally, grabbing our shovels, filling the orange buckets with dirt and working as a team to drag, swing, or pick-up the buckets so that they could dump them into a new pile over and over! Our top time in piling a new mound of dirt was 14 minutes! All the ELITEAMers were digging for gold, with competitive spirit and teamwork. Here are some of the quotes: “What? No treasure? This is a rip off!” “I usually shovel mulch at home!” “I wish we were building sand castles.”
Carter shared some insight from the Rock Walk: One of the five orientation stations this afternoon was the rock walk. The rock walk was very challenging, but every camper managed to bring a rock back up the path with them from the MAD river by the GMVS campus. The rock walk started with a trek down a steep trail in the woods to a stream. Once at the stream, coaches handed campers rocks, which were about the same weight in pounds as the campers age. Some campers wanted to take on a larger rock, but later realized their eyes were bigger than their arms. After the campers had their rocks they then carried the rocks back up the trail. Going back up the trail proved to be the hardest part. Overall the rock walk went very well, and now we have lots of rocks for other challenging activities throughout the week. Quotes: “Why is going back up so much harder?” “My favorite part is feeling my legs burn when I get to the top”
Blind Basketball recap from Coach Lauren: “Go left, NO YOUR OTHER LEFT!!!” –Meredith
Blind basketball was a teamwork activity where one partner had to coach their teammate into finding basketballs while blindfolded and then direct them to the bucket to score! Lots of positive energy and camaraderie! A few recommendations from the campers: Megan: “concentrate on your partners voice” & Ellie: “Bring it! Because the clock is on.”
CAMPER QUOTES- From the boys tonight.
What activity did you like the best and why?
Trent – The dirt shoveling because you had to work together.
Ford – The pole running because it was so much fun.”
Zach – “I probably like the dirt pile because it was fun using teamwork to dig.
Alex – The numbers Game because of the teamwork.
Sam – The pole games because it was so challenging.
Peyton – Rock Walk because it was so different.
Ben – Rock Walk because it was really challenging.
What was your most challenging moment and how did you push through it?
Ford – The rock walk – I kept telling myself “you are almost there and dig deep.”
Zach – My most challenging moment was definitely when we were carrying rocks up the really steep hill. I pushed through it by digging deep.
Alex – The rock walk. Don’t give up. Try more.
Right now I am…
Ford – Happy.
Zach – Tired.
Sam – Sore, but happy.
If you could tell your Mom on thing, what would it be?
Alex – I love ELITEAM and you so much.
Sam – I am having a lot of fun.
Peyton – This is so much fun.
Ben – Get me back here next summer.
