Campers give counselors a reason to sweat

Editor's Note: This is the third in a series of postcards that Daily Princetonian sports staff writers wrote about their experiences in the wide world of sports this summer. Keep reading through the next few weeks for more dispatches from across the country and around the world.

Billy Knox steps onto the hardwood floor and looks around. The old gym doesn't look much different than it has any other day he's stepped inside. A few cones on the floor, the familiar green steps leading up to the stage, the fans spinning unevenly above his head — these are the sights he's grown accustomed to over the last five summers.

Today, however, is different. Today is Knox's last chance to do something he and his peers have never done before. Today is their last chance to take down a perennial rival in East Hampton Sports Camp (EHSC)'s most notorious athletic event: camper-counselor dodgeball. I am one of the counselors attempting to deny the campers their first-ever win.

Knox, 13, finds what he's looking for in the corner — a blue mesh bag filled to the brim with the finest Gatorskin balls money can buy. Actually, as Knox notices, the balls are not quite in the same shape that they were at summer's start nine weeks ago. The once-taut skin has become loose, and many of the balls have holes where the unruly campers or overzealous counselors have dug their fingers a little too deep.

Having pulled a suitable dodgeball from the bag, Knox begins tossing the ball against the wall, slowly at first, but then with increasing speed. He remembers how, earlier in the week, a parent had brought a radar gun into the gym, "just for the heck of it." While even the strongest and oldest campers had topped out at 40 miles per hour, there were a handful of counselors who were throwing effortlessly above 60 mph.

Even so, Knox and the rest of the campers had never been more confident. With the youngsters having stolen a game in each of the previous two five-game sets, the counselors suddenly seemed vulnerable. Knox even had T-shirts made for his camper compatriots, emblazoned with the words "EHSC Underdogs" on the front. The shirts were a fairly transparent response to the handful of shirts that the counselors created as an homage to Gordon Bombay and his Mighty Ducks.

Knox watches as campers and counselors alike shuffle into the gym on a day when the rest of eastern Long Island wouldn't dream of being indoors. While others opt for lawns, boats and beaches, for the 50 children and young adults assembled, there's hardly a place they'd rather be. Nearly 40 campers gather against the stage, and a dozen counselors stand ready against the opposing wall, separated only by 70 feet, a line of cones and seven dodgeballs. The tension in the air is palpable as the stoic counselors watch Knox and his fellow campers whoop, scream and chant, working themselves into the fervor they will need to take down Goliath.

"Go!" yells a counselor, and it begins...

To understand the importance placed on these weekly dodgeball contests is to understand their history. EHSC, founded by Eric Scoppetta and Mark Crandall, has grown dramatically since its founding in 1992. After beginning that first summer with only five campers, Scoppetta and Crandall have watched as membership grew to over 100 in less than a decade. With that growth, however, the camp's membership has become somewhat younger, as children between the ages of four and seven now outnumber those between 10 and 13.

The current older campers are as competitive as their predecessors, though, and after a week of facing off against one another, they're ready for a change by Friday. This is where "camper-counselor," as it's affectionately known, comes in. When all campers under the age of 10 go to the beach every Friday, the older campers have the grounds to themselves.

"Camper-counselor has probably been around for about five years," head counselor Nick Tuths said. "Since the camp split Fridays from the beach, we started having camper-counselor in different sports. But the current form of Dodgeball Fridays really developed in the last two summers."

There has also been something of an evolution in the game in the last half-decade, with campers "graduating" and rules changing.

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"Even though the [camper] talent pool seems to grow smaller and smaller by the year, we keep it interesting by dropping less proven junior counselors and counselors-in-training to the other team," counselor Mike "Tiemp" Tuths said.

"To make it more official, we began utilizing the 'catch-and-bring-back' rule, making it more elimination-based," Nick Tuths explained.

Still, at the heart of the game remains a fierce competitiveness between the campers and counselors.

"I live and die by camper-counselor dodgeball," Mike Tuths said. "It is the highlight of my Fridays at camp. It's just a rush, with such a tight rivalry for such a long time."

Despite the perception and, indeed, reality of this tight rivalry, the fact remains that the campers have yet to defeat the counselors. Perhaps the most memorable of their close calls came one Friday during the summer of 2006. This particular contest also managed to turn what had once been a casually competitive rivalry into an intensely fierce one.

On that rainy Friday, the younger campers had returned from the beach and sat along the walls of the gym chanting and cheering for their older counterparts. Their support seemed to have a great impact, as they dismantled the counselors, leaving only two — Joe Kevin and Matt Conway — against over 25 campers. With the support of his coworkers, Conway proceeded to return the favor, taking out 15 campers before losing Kevin. Conway then finished off his final 10, one after the other, to stun the assembled mass and maintain the counselors' perfect record.

"The day that [Conway] battled back like 25 kids was the day it took a real turn, because it was the second half of the summer, and the campers were finally back at full strength [having returned from sleep-away camp]," Nick Tuths said. "It was almost like they could taste it."

The campers wouldn't have another solid chance at victory until the end of that summer.

"When I made my unexpected curtain call the day I was leaving to start freshman year [of] college," Mike Tuths recalls, "I came in and we had fallen a game behind the campers. I got there, and we absolutely shut them down and took the series.

"I left that day with one of the greatest feelings of self-satisfaction, which may seem odd to an outsider — me saying something like that about dodgeball. People outside of EHSC can't even fathom the rush of adrenaline involved in camper-counselor."

By the time Knox and the rest of the campers were set to start the final match of 2007, another summer of coming up just short had already passed. Now had to be their time ...

BAM!

The shots come fast and furious as the campers hold onto their hope for victory. Ten minutes into the contest, however, time appears to be running out on the campers' hopes despite having knocked out Nick Tuths and his younger brother Vince, arguably the camp's hardest thrower.

Knox, having been vanquished just moments ago by a booming throw from Mike Tuths, watches from the sideline as just two remaining campers battle four counselors. Just when all seems lost, however, a miracle comes for the campers, as Timmons somehow manages to catch a Mike Tuths throw to bring teammate Owen Simon back into the game.

After a deflection knocks Conway out, Simon, 13, catches a throw from counselor Ben Jurney to give the campers a three-man advantage.

"It definitely had me worried," Nick Tuths said. "Especially because I didn't fare particularly well and then to see Conway go down ... When the best and most consistent player — 'the Savior,' if you will — goes down with a handful of kids left, I had to pause."

The counselors have another reason to pause. Their final hope is Zoe Burns, a 14-year-old counselor-in-training making her camper-counselor debut. To make matters worse, she is matched up against 4 of the most talented dodgeballers that the campers have to offer. An opening-game victory seems all but certain for the campers.

"Seeing Zoe up against essentially the top 3 campers was painful," Mike said. "It was like Chinese water torture, like having a terminal illness — you know sooner or later you're losing. You just wonder when."

For many of the counselors who look back on the contest, the problem wasn't so much that they were overmatched at the end of the game, but rather who their final competitor was.

"I just feel like our team had been diluted with nonbelievers," Mike Tuths said.

"To have to root for Zoe, ugh," Nick Tuths added. "It was painful. She was never involved before. It shouldn't have been hers to lose."

After holding on for nearly five minutes, Burns finally succumbs to a heavy camper onslaught. The campers have won the all-important first game and now hold the momentum heading into the rest of the series.

"I was always pretty confident," Nick Tuths said. "But after we caught that 'L' and I watched Zoe get abused ... that's the first time I ever thought to myself, 'Oh man, I really don't want to lose to these guys.' "

With the measure of uncertainty also came resolve on the part of the counselors. After being embarrassed by the "EHSC Underdogs" in the first game, the Tuths, Conway and the rest of the counselors came back to take the next three games, securing their dodgeball supremacy for another summer.

"[After the first game,] it was really in the air, this idea of revolution was palpable," Nick Tuths said. "And that's when I think we kicked it up and really took over."

Still, the victory the campers earned on Friday is not one that Knox or his teammates will soon forget. For the first time, the counselors have something to fear.

"When you combine the mystique surrounding [the counselors] and the reputations they had created for themselves in dodgeball, there was this idea of toppling the empire," Nick Tuths said. "It was crazy, and to an outsider I'm sure this will sound silly, but camp is its own entity.

"I've always said that big brothers won't lose in fights to little brothers because there is so much at stake — the big brother has too much to lose. And at our camp, we really become these kids' big brothers ... The younger siblings look up to the older brothers and even if it's silly and trivial, losing tarnishes that a little bit and we know it. So in a way, we're kind of fighting, not necessarily for dominance, but to preserve the relationship."

Other counselors, however, have a different take on the competitions.

"After dealing with kids who have annoyed me all week, it's the perfect release," senior counselor Charlie Lewis said.

In the end, though it was Knox's last chance for victory, there's always next summer for the other campers. Another nine chances for little brothers to take on their big brothers — maybe this time they'll come out on top. But I doubt it.