The Pack 462 Annual Paper Football Tournament was much like a real football game. There was mayhem, there was chaos, we certainly had ear-deafening crowd noise, and in the end everyone had a great time (hopefully).
Let's start off by recognizing that this was our first official Pack Meeting of the 2023-24 Scout Season and we had a massive turnout. 48 Scouts participated (+1 guest Girl Scout). We broke into 8 groups of 6 roughly by age. The intention was to have 5 prelim games in each group but we used a lot of time just getting set up. If you didn't recognize the connection, the real lesson here is about proper flag folding. By having everyone fold their own paper football, we teach kids flag folding in a fun, hands on way. Granted 40 out of 48 kids probably needed a bit of parental or Scout leader help to create the tight folds necessary for a perfect-triangle of a paper football. And there were plenty of parents struggling with that last fold where you tuck it in the pocket. I'll repost the Paper Football directions here, it just takes practice, practice, practice. Both for folding and for playing.
While most parents went upstairs for our Fall Orientation meeting, the remaining leaders tried to establish some order in the building and get the games going. We also had to teach a lot of kids the game. Which is awesome! It means we have new Scouts! In fact, there's at least one newbie at every level and 8 new Lions (Kindergartners) made it to this meeting. They were all brave to try this new thing called Scouts, and learn this new game, in a raucous room, while their parents were upstairs for a good period of time. Really proud of how they tried even if not all of them had the knack for it just yet. In group A, which was all Lions Theo Anderson deserved an honorable mention for winning the group. He had 2 wins and a tie. Hunter Phillips also would have moved on with a W and 2 ties, but the younger guys had lost patience and were getting to their bedtimes by the time we got past the group stage. Group B was a mix of Lions and Tigers (1st grade) and the difference a year makes is amazing. Jacob Hutton and Owen Montemuro moved on from this group and Jacob went all the way to the medal stand. As a first grader who never played before!! Group C was some Tigers and Wolves (2nd graders). A newcomer Grady Boyle and Owen Anderson both went undefeated in 3 prelim matches to earn a tournament berth. Owen went home with his younger brother though allowing a wild card entry from the more seasoned Scouts (who could stay a little longer). Jack Garrett also made it in from the Wolves group knocking out some Bears on the way. Of our many Bears, Leo Johansen (Group D), Matt Mullin and Colin Hatton (Group E), and newcomer Mason Kohan (Group E) moved into the tourney. The Webelos were represented by James Hutton, Jack Gietl, Brandon Solomon, and another new Scout Brennan Mery. But through a process of elimination, we narrowed it down to the final 3. Jack Gietl was the top winner by beating both the other contenders and staying undefeated all night long. Last year's winner Matt Mullin nearly defended his title but fell to Jack in a hard-fought battle. He wound up with 2nd place and Jacob Hutton got 3rd as our youngest medalist yet. This is way too much focus on the competition though, Scouts is about bonding and friendship and dealing with adversity. So I was proud to see friends consoling one another if they were taking their elimination hard. I was proud to see kids help set up and tear down. And I was simply happy to see such a great turnout on our first full group event. Thank you!
Comments