A Banner Day

It was a banner day at Camp Timanous, with abundant sunshine and packed with special activities! After a late sleep (it was a Saturday, after all) and breakfast, the full camp gathered under the tent for morning announcements. Nick Leyden, our program director, built up the suspense for what the schedule had in store. By the time he announced "We're playing capture the flag!!" the entire camp was already erupting in cheers.

Always a camp favorite, the first set of games we played last week all ended in 0-0 ties between Green and Gray, so there was a heightened sense of urgency for the first team to get the flag across the line. Another fun element was that campers who had just made tie-dye shirts in handicrafts were able to wear them for "C-Flag" uniforms.

We played two very exciting games, with each team winning one. In the first game, Tobin in Crows was able to nab the flag after it was thrown across the line to give Gray the lead 1-0. In the very next game, Green got into the flag circle several times, advancing the flag closer and closer to their line, and finally Jameson in Cardinals swept through and made a dash back to his side and made it! The day's, and now season's, score is knotted up at 1-1.

Usually we're fortunate to have one special event in a weekend. But today, we had a second much-anticipated activity that took place all afternoon: the Timanous Flag Football League! The TFFL, a newer Timanous tradition, attracts a ton of campers each summer to the series of 5v5 games. Each team is comprised of campers across all ages, and inspiration for their names are drawn from where counselors go in the "offeason"; this year we saw the likes of Team High Point, Team Yale, and Team NOLS Gap Year, among many others.

It was a beautiful afternoon with lively commentary across all the simultaneous games from Evan Cummings, Head Counselor of Crogles cabin. Each team played three "regular season" games to determine the 8-team playoff seeding. Even if your team didn't advance, it was still a pretty epic afternoon, and heading for a swim in Panther Pond is a pretty nice consolation prize. As Charlie in Mallards cabin said to Anderson Lynch, a beat reporter on the scene (and one of our Owls this year), "It was real awesome. The kids I played with and everyone else had a really good time."

After some fireworks in the early rounds, the championship game pitted Team Holy Cross (the Crusaders) against Team Hampshire (the Black Sheep) in a defensive showdown. There was stellar quarterback play on each side. A highlight was the brilliant goal-line defense by Chase from Crogles cabin, which was the figurative icing on the cake for his birthday (after he and his cabin mates enjoyed the literal frosting on his cake after lunch). At the end of the day, the Crusaders proved too tough a challenge for the Black Sheep, with a final winning score of 2-0.

As Trey in Loons cabin remarked after the game, "We had fun, it was a great time." Even more importantly, referee Archer Snell noted that "I saw a lot of great games and even better sportsmanship." Hard to script a better sentence on what competition at Timanous is all about.

After all of the fun and camaraderie on the fields, morning and afternoon, we capped the day with cabin cookouts and activities. No doubt all of the finer points and broader implications of the days events were dissected around the campfire, campers leaning back in their camp chairs and enjoying each other's company. While every day at Timanous has its highlights, July 10th may just be a top highlight of the 2021 summer.