Final Scrimmage and the "Sarcastic Clap"

The weather this morning reminded me of home for the first time since I’ve been here. Some of the girls from the Midwest even said that it was no warmer than their home, only in the Midwest, snow would probably be accompanying the cold (actually, I think JoJo, from Grand Rapids, said that they have snow now).

Despite the cold, we had a productive morning session. We worked a lot in our respective units doing positional drills and working on our attack. In one of our attacking drills we learned about the “sarcastic clap.” It’s slower than a “fast clap,” faster than a “slow clap,” more rhythmic than a “golf clap,” and can be used to measure the proper speed of the ball moving quickly down an offensive line.

Lunch here at camp has been consistent. Usually, there is something on the menu that is pretty tasty, especially for food that has been prepared in bulk. Today it was the chicken kabobs. Of course, the staples are always the same—the salad, fruit, veggies—but, I have to say that the food here has been good.

For the first time in our time here at camp, we got a mid-day break. Our coaches cancelled the 1pm meeting and gave us time to rest and recover before the evening session at 3pm. I feel like it was a good decision, because our evening session included a real 15v15 abridged (20min halves) game.

I think everyone here had been looking forward to the game and we all played like it. Our coach, Pete Steinberg, commented, after the game, that it was hard to analyze players, because he got caught up in watching a good rugby game. The red team (yours truly played fullback and outside center for red) won the match. For a majority of the first 20mins, blue dominated the breakdowns, and red played defense. However, when red got the ball they were very efficient on offense. This carried over to the second half and that efficiency translated into several tries. Blue also got into a rhythm, but theirs came later in the second 20mins, but did put them on the board.

After the long awaited scrimmage, we had dinner and our evening meeting, where we discussed our future, the future of the program, what we did well at camp and what we need to improve. We also got a chance to “bedazzle” our Eagles Notebooks (I was a “sticker-kid,” so mine is, well, covered in stickers). Tomorrow, we’ll have meetings and a skills session, but the meat of the physical activity in camp is done. It feels good.

An update on Tigertown: I was informed today that Tigertown isn’t an actual place. There is a place in Florida called Lakeland, but Tigertown isn’t a town or a place in Florida. From this knowledge, and some rather mysterious happenings here at camp, I have deduced that Tigertown is, in fact, a black hole. These mysterious happenings include virtually no gravity during the vertical test (for some players), the high-energy collisions demonstrated by Jamie Burke, The Kug, and Captain Turley, and the time warp that happens when players step into the ice bath (time actually stops sometimes). Apparently, it is impossible to escape a black hole, so here’s to hoping that modern science comes up with something in the next 14 or so hours.