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*** Camp "Football? Uhhh, Nothx" was in full swing this morning for their 10th day of summer camp.
-- Pool parties, ice cream trucks, talent shows, paintball, dance competitions, and dodgeball have all been featured, but things got intense this morning, when a heated game of cornhole broke out.
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-- The competition was intense, but ultimately Team Art Kehoe and Sunny Odogwu won the championship after Earl Moore's mom came to pick him up early. Chad Thomas tried to finish the game alone, but was sidelined with a stomachache. "Too many snowcones," he told me.
-- Mature players continue to grow as players and people. Tracy Howard asked Gus Edwards to the end of camp dance, to which he said yes. Golden is thrilled with his progress. "Tracy's really opened up and become a leader here at camp. When he was first dropped off, he was very shy and would never leave his bunk. He's a whole new kid now. He's made a ton of friends and we think he can be a great friend this fall."
-- The secondary continues to bond. Corn Elder asked his mom if he could "sleep over Artie's house," and she eventually caved. "I told her I would scream as loud as I could and wouldn't stop until she said yes," Elder told me.
-- I asked Al Golden what he thinks he needs to change after a 7-loss season: "The quantifiable love metric is evolving. They're definitely working better together. You look for that increased cohesion metric across the matrix," Golden said. "When they acclimate to our system, we can begin to integrate our values and instill our pillars on a molecular level."
-- The OL's cohesion as a unit was on display in the arts and crafts hour, when after eating 3 tubs of glue and screaming at a pair of scissors, the unit was able to subdue Sunny Odogwu long enough to call for help.
-- Al Golden is confident his defense can improve on last year's ranking. "This team is different. When you get a group of 80 kids that just love up on each other - their young bodies glistening in the lake, muscles bouncing on the water skis as Mark and I drive the boat - starting to buy in, you've got something special. These guys love eachother. They're inseparable. I have parents approach me worried about why their sons are sleeping at my house and telling me they've been acting weird and withdrawn [laughs]. But this is bonding. Just a group of guys seeing who could hug each other the hardest and whose breath is hottest. We didn't have this last year."
-- Miami will hold a water balloon fight Wednesday.
