by Hayden Teeter
With the first day of class comes the first day of Optionals, a series of different activities led by the counseling staff, with choices changing daily. After a long day of learning and three hearty meals at the dining hall, SCATS campers are ready to let loose and have some fun. In order to ensure that the campers have plenty of enjoyable and engaging activities, SCATS summer counselors such as myself work together to brainstorm and execute up to eight different Optionals, ranging from friendship bracelet-making to flag football. For my first Optional of the year, I, along with my fellow counselor Malcolm Jones, decided to run my favorite sport and favorite camp Optional: Ultimate Frisbee.
Requiring little more than a frisbee, Ultimate is a staple of SCATS, with counselors leading it and campers signing up for it long before my first year as a camper in 2015. Ready to introduce Ultimate to a new generation of campers, Malcolm and I took 14 students down to the South Lawn to play. Boys and girls of all ages had signed up, and many had never had the opportunity to play before, so I gave a brief explanation of the rules and numbered them off into teams, and SCATS 2021’s first game of Ultimate Frisbee began. The campers spent 90 minutes throwing, catching, running, jumping, and, most importantly, having a blast. After Optionals time ended, several of the campers expressed their interest in playing Ultimate Frisbee in the future, and I can’t wait to offer it again.