Today was another exciting day of SCATS, and the final day for campers to choose optionals. As always, all of the optionals were a hit with the campers, but today I would like to highlight the optional that I ran with my fellow counselor Jay Saylor. We brought the campers outside and taught them the noble sport of fencing, with pool noodles of course. I have been fencing for two years now, and the campers really seemed to enjoy learning actual fencing techniques rather than repeatedly whacking each other on the heads with noodles. We taught the proper footwork, attacks, guarding positions and other defensive techniques. We even held a tournament to see how quickly they picked up this sport that half of them hadn’t even heard of thirty minutes prior. It was a good showing, and as someone who has watched and played a lot of fencing bouts, they caught on quickly. In the end, Reece Salyer took home the victory, outfencing the other campers in a close final bout.
The best part of camp, even back when I was a camper, was always the optionals. The sheer variety of choices and the element of uncertainty of what you were signing up for was so fun for me. It really allowed you to truly try new things in a safe environment where everyone around you supported you in getting out of your comfort zone. I think that opinion is shared among the campers this year as well.