It is difficult sometimes to single out just one event that takes place during at day here at Camp Takajo to describe to you. But today, it’s easy. Tonight, our thirteen-and-under basketball team hosted a game against a neighboring camp. When I looked at our boys in uniform, I couldn’t help but think back to when they first arrived a camp four or five years ago. As young campers, they learned fundamentals on a Warrior basketball court taught by the effervescent, enthusiastic, one-and-only counselor, Shad.
To watch these campers as adolescent men, dressed in their Camp Takajo uniforms, come together as a team epitomizes the strength of our camp. These guys not only trust each other as great friends, but also know how to back each other under pressure. Somehow, I have to imagine that when reveille sounded this morning and these boys opened their eyes, they popped out of bed, looked at each other and said, “Game day!”
While our day was filled with a wide range of activities, including watching the final of the FIFA World Cup, there was nothing more important to these 13-year-olds than coming together as a team and representing our camp. In a packed gym, filled with younger Warrior campers, I couldn’t help but think that in just a few years these little guys sitting on the sidelines will some day take the court in a similar situation. After a hard-fought, six-point victory, our boys shook their opponent’s hands, escorted them back to their van and made their way back to their bunks to celebrate their experience.
