Ultimate Peace 12 - FANTA finishes strong in quarterfinals

I wrote this post the second to last day of camp and thought I'd lost it forever after the publish failed repeatedly. So, it would have been Ultimate Peace 10 chronologically here. Away, here goes:

Big sigh. Its early evening here and I've withdrawn to my room to let some of the dust settle from today.

Sigh. Fanta didn't finish as high in the tournament as I thought we could have. We played four games between the morning pool play and afternoon bracket. Lost three of them. But I think we're in the running for a spirit award tomorrow during the closing meeting/event. We had great cheers ourselves, took time to root for other teams, and generally carried ourselves well (if I may say so myself). Really I just want something that says "great job Ben!" though i sense that I'll have to come up with that recognition myself.

Speaking of spirit, several times today players and coaches tested the lessons of spirit and each other's patience. In our second game, one of my assistant coaches really got into it with the opposing coach about appropriate involvement in instruction and rules during the game. I still don't know what sparked it but it seemed to come from everyone wanting to win and see their kids do well points-wise and spirit-wise. Sigh.

Speaking of recognition, I handed out to each Fanta player (in addition to all the stuff camp offers, like a team jersey and water bottle, etc) a jersey (donated by Atlanta frisbee people , Thank y'all) and a Spin ultimate sticker. I know the guys appreciate it even though they were distracted by the finals and other goings on.

It feels like the end of a long tournament. One of my campers, Tomer, left camp a couple days ago, though I never heard directly why. Then Noam went home tonight to observe sabbath before sundown.

Sigh. There's more still to do at camp. I want to play with the kids more, do more throwing and drilling and scrimmaging. We should dance, sing, sit, eat, and walk together more. So as much as I need some rest from the long days of chaperoning, coaching, leading, running, meeting, preparing, and playing... this is where I needed to be this week. Of course the remaining paperwork and cleaning up seem to get in the way of knowing it. But I know it.

So I'm sad that goodbyes have started. Twice at least today I saw people cry, a camper and a local coach. The accomplishment that camp represents, and the actual connections made here are unimaginable. Everyone is really invested in this week. That's coming to s close. More emotion and farewells will happen tomorrow. Followed by a beach bbq for coaches and staff, a rafting trip sunday then by a short clinic with the national team. Then village visits Monday to the communities campers come from.

Check out the leadership of team Fanta at the fields this afternoon. Nadav from New York, Abe from Israel, and Max from Seattle.

I think that attachment has failed. Hopefully you can see Nadav with the cutest camper, Said from Jericho, in the cafeteria.