World Cup Doublecreek Style

This is the week!  It’s soccer time at Doublecreek .  Forget the Women’s World Cup, Men’s World Cup, Gold Cup, Silver Cup, Bronze Cup, Iron Cup, and Tin Cup.  This is the Doublecreek World Cup.  Some might ask, “Don’t you think you’re going a tad overboard calling it the World Cup when only campers and counselors at Doublecreek play?”  Hey,  if the NFL, NBA, and MLB declare their champion a “world” champion, why can’t Doublecreek?

It works like this.  Grades Five and up campers will have six teams; third and fourth grades will have four teams.  The chairman of this endeavor, Austin Willliamson, will divide up the counselors and assign campers to each team.   Don’t worry about teams having unfair advantages based on talent being concentrated on one team.  This is Austin Williamson handling our soccer league, not Sepp Blatter.  Payments under the table are not going to happen.

There are the teams for the 5^th and Up groups:  USA, Mexico, Germany, Tanzania, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.  The teams for the 3^rd and 4^th Grades are:  USA, Mexico, Germany, and France.

We used to have teams named after cartoon characters, or we simply named them by color.  Naming the teams after countries has added a whole new dynamic to the contest.  We are planning an Opening Ceremony.  Will it match the Beijing Olympics?  We’ll see.  But you can’t have an Opening Ceremony without singing the national anthems of the countries.  I’ve never heard the Armenian national anthem, but I’m sure it will be something.  A camper asked me if these countries have “fight” songs.  I asked if he meant a national anthem.  He was emphatic that he knew the difference between a national anthem and a fight song, and did Azerbaijan have a fight song?  I told him I was sure they did.  So if you have a child scouring the Internet for the Azerbaijan fight song, you can blame me. (Just a thought – what would the good ‘ole USA use as a fight song?)

Anyway, back to the Doublecreek World Cup.  Everyone involved is into the World Cup with everything they’ve got.  We have games going in two venues.  In the true spirit of international cooperation and good will, no quarter is requested and none is given.

What I find particularly interesting is how campers and counselors have adopted their assigned countries.  For one week, they are proud to be Germans, Armenians, Tanzanians, Frenchmen (or Frenchwomen), etc.  Several participants either brought or made replicas of their country’s World Cup shirt.

While I’ve seen intense competition on the pitch, I haven’t seen tears shed by the losers.  In spite of the semi-fierce competition, it’s all been in fun!  That is a buzz word at Doublecreek – have fun!  We have fun every week, but this special week we had fun singing, Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole!

—Joe Ray