Thinking about southwest Missouri in July, and all the Bible teaching and good times held there for one week of the year. Grateful God's placed everybody I've met there over the years into my life, and hoping Christ is still working in the hearts and minds of the campers and counselors once I leave the chapter. This is a story I wrote about the games played last year, reason I'm reposting it is because I'm bored and don't have anything else sports-wise to write about. Cabbage ball is slow-pitch softball, for those wondering.
2011 SGYC Tournament Challenge recap
The 2011 Sovereign Grace Youth Camp, held at Camp Beth-Eden in Conway, Missouri, will probably go down as one of the most injurious times ever in its' 26-year history. It was a year of transition, as Joanna Ivie noted, with a very different feel to it, which was reflected in the Tournament Challenge.
Play began Tuesday with Green defeating Red(again sticking with the nickname "Devils") in volleyball, and Black beating Blue on the Ultimate Frisbee field. In cabbage ball, the White squad was (soon to be named the Cubs, for unfortunately honest reasons) facing the Yellow team(soon to be labeled the 'Jackets). Yellow captain Daniel Freeland chose to bat first, so the White team, led by Wesley Coburn, took the field. Yellow's Kerri Barger and White's Joe Paxton each managed hits, but the first inning was scoreless. Yellow stung back in the second, stroking four straight singles followed by a grand slam to go up 5-0. Alexa Hankins got on base, she scored on a double by Coburn, who was then driven home by an Ashland Hankins double. Samara Jensen got a hit, and Matt Freeland scored the two of them with an RBI single. Austin Hankins scored Paige Steeley, and Bennett Cox gave his team the lead on a sacrifice fly. The White momentum was quickly killed as Yellow erupted for seven runs in the third inning, Ashland sacrificed an out to let Wesley cross the plate, and Freeland drove in Jensen, but the rally fell short, and Yellow took the game by a 12-8 score.
Next was the BPG section, where Green(the "Bulldogs") triumphed over Blue(the "Angels") at mini golf, Yellow topped Black in Bible trivia by a 8600-7900 score, and White's opponent in ping pong would be Red. Always a hotly contested compettition whenever there's a table open, Red's Anne Butler defeated Marie Dugas 11-5, 11-3, Jorgi Henry topped Jensen, and Justine Mueller won out over Bethany Garner, White rallied as Alexa dropped Vania Sadowski 11-6, 11-1, Ashland won over Hannah Landry 11-0, 11-3, and Samara vanquished Landry 11-5, 11-6. Cox lost, but Bennett then recovered by taking a three game match over Seth Blanton. Wesley Coburn and Ben Lies split their matches, Coburn took the first 11-5, 16-14, Lies then returned the favor 11-7, 11-5. Overall, the final score turned out to be White 11 games, Red 10 games.
That brought up the first of two Worst/First chalenges that night, Black wound up with volleyball against Yellow after Blue chose Green in cabbage ball, and Red looked for redemption against White in Ultimate. Red struck first with two passes from Jorgi to Bailey Cook, then Jarod Hill threw a touchdown to Henry, and she caught another from Jon Lange. The Cubs got on the board with a long Bennett-to-Wesley pass, which was follwed by a Jorgi-Jarod TD, and the Devils took the first game 5-1. Both sides sent their Team 2's out, Red scored first, but White answered on a sister-to-sister score, from Ashland to Alexa. White then fell behind, but thier short passes resulted in a Joe Paxton touchdown catch off an Alexa Hankins throw, Hannah Landry then found Seth Blanton, putting her team back on top, but Alexa found Matt Freeland, Ashland hit Alexa, and one more White score tied the game at one apiece after the 5-3 score. Game 3 started off with a pair of Henry-Cook touchdowns, then Samara Jensen passed out due to a combonation of heat and asthma, stopping play. Though not feeling well, she re-entered the game and promptly threw a TD to Matt. Hill responded, finding Henry in the end zone, Ashland tied the game by connecting with Jensen, Red moved ahead with Stan Garner's score off a Cook throw, Freeland snagged a Cox pass, but it wasn't quite enough, as Garner threw the clinching pass to Henry, Red winning two games to one by a total score of 12-9.
Time passed by too quickly, as it always does every year, and Wednesday the Cubs took on the Bulldogs of Green in Frisbee. On the opening serve, Bennett was caught in a collision with Rhen Ross, injuring his head and knocking him out of the game. Jon Minner threw the first scoring pass to Ross, but it was answered by a diving trap by Wesley on a Samara Jensen throw. Green went back on top with two quick scores, one of which was Minner to Abbey Underwood, the Cubs clawed back as Wesley found his dance partner, Ashland skipped into the end zone and caught the pass. The Bulldogs growled with displeasure, Underwood threw to Minner and they scored again, taking the first game 5-2. White had some difficulty forming a Team 2, with Bennett out, Marie not playing and Sam and Matt both feeling under the weather. Despite these problems, Matt fired touchdowns to Samara and Ashland, Andrew Ashe played a part in the next two Green scores. Since time was fast becoming an issue, it went into sudden death, with each side putting their best five players on the field. This didn't bode well for the vertically challenged White squad, Green sent out a quintet of guys ranging from 5'10" to 6'2", compared to their three girl, two guy lineup, none taller than 5'7" or 8"(this is disputed). Green's unbeaten streak was kept alive, they won with a gamecount of 2-0 and a score total of 8-4.
In other news, Black, playing as the Thunder this year, downed the Yellow Jackets in volleyball, while the Blue Angels picked up their first win over the Red Devils, 10-3 in cabbage ball. Next, Black narrowly edged Red in golf, 539-551, Yellow got the better of Blue in ping pong, and Green and White headed down to the tabernacle for Bible trivia. The Cubs got the upper hand, at one point leading 5300-1500, but a late run by the Bulldogs trimmed it to a 7900-5500 lead for the team cursed by history(or predestined to fail, depending on your theology and mood). The answer in Final Jeopardy was: Samson used these, in this amount, to burn the fields of the Philistines. Both sides risked it all, both sides said foxes, but only Green correctly picked the right number: 300. Thus ended the competitiom for the day, but things weren't done. Jensen passed out again, Marie Dugas, Green's Courtney Coburn and Red's Jon Lange all got overheated, and Green lost Rhen Ross, who had to leave early due to a family illness. After the talent share and general session, much discussion was chewed over in the outer left boys cabin between Jed, Jon, Matt and Wes in the interests of player health, where it was determined that Blue would pick Green, and no matter whether Red or White won first pick in Worst/First, they would play volleyball in the shade. An exceptiion to the Worst/First rules was made to allow Black to tangle with Yellow(in the air conditioning) in ping pong.
It looked like a day that history might be made, as Green was 5-for-5 in thier events heading into the final day. The Thunder and 'Jackets were competing in ping pong, and the Devils and Cubs were set for thier third matchup of the week. Volleyball is traditionally thought of as a girls' sport, so it was hardly a surprise that Ashland, Samara, Alexa and Bethany took charge. With the interesting rally cry of "Sharkbait!", White held even. For a while. Things went into the familiar downward spiral from there. The Devils had their second win in three days over White, as they destroyed the Cubs 15-8, 15-8.
While leaving UVC for BPG, they were met by jubilant Angels, who upset Green 9-6, squashing a last-inning comeback bid. In Bible trivia, Red prevailed against Blue 13000-8000, Yellow obliterated White on the golf course, winning by 95 strokes. Black and Green, who would face each other that night, went to the limit in the table tennis duel. Black led 11 games to ten, with the final game tied at 10-all. Black's Bryan Maier ended up winning 12-10, setting everyone's focus on the final UVC of the week.
The volleyball match between Blue and White was irrelevant to the standings. Black and Green were slated to play cabbage ball, each side had five points. Thus, the title, prizes and BRAGGING RIGHTS hinged on both the cabbage ball game and the Red-Yellow UF game. If Red won, then the cabbage ball would determine the title. If Yellow won, however, they would go into a tiebreaker system developed in response to the emergency Bible trivia match between Blue and Red last year, which Red won 2 1/2 questions to 2. But first, more pressing matters needed taking care of. The Wrights left a day early to leave on vacation to Ohio, inadvertinately leaving Lauren's Black and Tamara's Yellow teams shorthanded, and one fewer counselor in the loss of Pippa. During the boys singing between 4:00 and 5:00 pm, Eva Sadowski gashed her eye on the ladder coming up from the pool on a dive. She was rushed, accompanied by Mrs Minner and Lizzie Martin, to St. Joseph's Hospital in Lebanon. That left Black with only eight members, and a camp full of anxious people. What followed next was, no other words would do, shocking.
Still with the cry of "Sharkbait!" ringing, White astounded themselves with how easy the first game was to win, the score was 15-5. The second swung back and forth, but little by little, their hope dimmed, and Blue snuck up and stole it 15-12. WIth the third game actually counting for something, the cursed Cubs' nerves got to them, and the Angels won the final 10-1.
Nobody was prepared for the sight they saw next. Jed, collapsed in a heap, apparently unmoving after overexerting himself, and people hovering over him. We all realized, even if we hadn't believed it before, the truth of the statement that "It's just a game." The next twenty minutes slowly ticked away, the tabernacle was full of hurried prayers, terrified eyes and tightly reined emotions. He recovered, mostly, and we manily heaved a sigh of relief, although he had a close watch upon him by many concerned friends. I'm afraid that no one heard a word of Ryan Butler's sermon on anger that night. With knowing that Eva would soon be okay, seeing that Jed was all right, and the general session out of the way(Note, this was the only time we felt that way about the preaching.) lighter things could be focused on, namely, finding out who won, signing books, and seeing how late we were allowed to stay up.
Turned out Yellow won Ultimate 2-0, with a score count of 10-1. That meant they would be in a tiebreak against...BLACK. The Thunder won the game in jaw-dropping fashion, by a score of 21-1. In slowpitch softball. The tiebreaker was mysteriously untangled, and Black emerged as the 2011 SGYC Tournament Challenge championship team.
WIth 24 first-timers out of 66 attendees, it was a much younger year. Kind of a passing of the torch from the older generation(which is nearly gone), and the new, incoming one. And nothing was physically destroyed. The pool was renovated, and The Gum Tree has it's own plaque now. The future looks birght for SGYC, and hopefully they'll continue to point teens to Christ for a long time to come. I don't know if I'll be able to come next year, but I've made some terrific friendships and learned a lot in the time I've spent in Conway.
Amd yeah. statistically, we didn't do that well as a team, but we sure gave it all we had every time. I had some of the greatest teammates a person could ask for, and it was amazing meeting some of you for the first time, and getting to know the rest deeper. So, thank you to(in alphabetical order) Alexa, Ashland, Austin, Bethany, Bennett, Joe, Marie, Matt, Paige and Samara.
Black Thunder 6 pts
Yellow Jackets 6 pts
Green Bulldogs 5 pts
Red Devils 3 pts
Blue Angels 2 pts
White Cubs 1 pt
Total score tally from 2008-2011 (Out of 31 contests)
Yellow 18 wins '08 champs
Green 16 wins
Black 15 wins '11 champs
Blue 15 wins '09 champs
Red 14 wins '10 champs
White 8 wins.
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