College baseball fans, I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season and are as excited as I am for February! Now, December is a pretty great month. It’s tough to beat the countdown to Christmas and being surrounded by family. One month does beat it though. That month is the possible snow-filled yet certain baseball-filled February. February is the start of the best season of all. We have prepared all fall for it and now the fall grind is over. Exams came and went and despite what we thought throughout the week, we survived. Now all of us Fighting Camels are spread across the country visiting home and families for Christmas break. This time of the year is very important to our team. Everyone is now forced to put in their hard work on their own without our coaches’ supervision. I truly believe champions are made in the long hours they put in when no one is watching.
Backtracking to the week before our exam week though is when we held our third-ever Camel Strong Challenge. This is a big week that everyone is always pretty pumped for. Many college baseball teams have their own versions of this kind of week around the country. It gives us a chance to compete against each other in non-baseball related athletic events. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a tough and strenuous five days of challenges. When it’s all over, though, the pain and exhaustion is worth the pride of completing it all with your team.
Before Challenge week started, our four assistant coaches drafted teams of 7-8 players based on the following factors: speed, agility, strength, endurance, leadership, and teamwork ability. The four teams were then given team names that included Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Honesty. Team Integrity was headed by Coach Mike Delucia, Team Trust was led by Coach Jeff Steele, Team Accountability was Director of Baseball Operations Tyler Robinson, and Team Honesty was helmed by Coach Chris Marx. The Challenge was put together by Coach Delucia with the help of all the coaches and our Strength Coach Andrew Carter. Throughout the week, we competed in team events as well as individual events. At the end of the week, one team is crowned champions as well as one individual. I was drafted to be on Team Integrity, and I liked our chances of victory from the very beginning.
Day 1 – Our very first event was a Timed Mile through our school cross country trail. Each team ran separate from the other teams to get the fastest time possible. While we ran, each member of the team had to hold up part of a large rope. The rope could not touch the ground or that team had to start their mile over. Our next event that day was an Agility Obstacle Course, and this was also a team event. It included hurdle jumps, short sprints and changes of direction, jumping rope, a pro-agility drill, and a 100-yard sprint. Our last competitions for day one were individual events and these included the Chin-Up Hold, Push-Ups, Medicine Ball Squats, and 25 lb. Plate Holds. Each individual’s ranking contributed to their team’s overall score, yet team events had no impact on an individual’s score.
Day 2 – Our first event of day two was a Medicine Ball Toss to see who could throw the farthest. This was an individual event testing each competitor’s strength. The most effective way to do this was to throw it backwards over your head. After that we moved onto a Power Relay course, which was a team event testing power and endurance. It included PVC pipe pushes, 45 lb. plate pushes, broad jumps, sled pushes, Gator pushes, and hurdle pushes. This relay was much tougher than I expected. About halfway through it, my legs had already given out on me. Everyone fought through it though in order to give their best time for their team.
Day 3 – This day was a tough one all around. Going into this day we realized that there were three more days left of Challenge Week. Like all college students, we were trying to get over the hump of the week and closer to the weekend. In addition to our classroom demands, we had the grueling demands of the Camel Strong Challenge. Our first event of this day was a 300-Yard Shuttle. This is a 25-yard sprint and back six times. Next we had a 45 lb. Plate Run which was down and around one of our hitting dummies and back. After that we had a team-only Tire Flipping competition. Each team had to flip the huge tires as many times as they could in five minutes. Five minutes turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it was. Every team adopted the clever strategy of simply flipping the tire over and back in the same place, instead of flipping it the same direction each time. This saved time and energy and, during Challenge Week, it’s all about time and energy. A tire flip relay race was needed to break the tie between two teams during this competition. As if we weren’t already exhausted, we still had events in the pool to complete day three. These included Treading Water for endurance and swimming laps in a Team Relay Race. Treading water is probably my least favorite of all the events. I see myself as an average swimmer, but the pool and I are not close friends.
Day 4 – We started with a little fun on day four. Our first event was a Jousting one-on-one fight inside of a blow up bouncy house. Each competitor was on their personal peg with a large cushioned bar in hand. This was used to knock the other person off of their peg. It was tournament style with the last man standing as the winner. Our group of guys brought a lot of energy to this competition. The next event of the day was everyone’s favorite: Dodgeball. We all brought out our inner White Goodman and had a blast. After using the five D’s of dodgeball for a while, we moved on to the last event of the day. This was a team Campus Run while carrying different types of equipment. Two medicine balls, two weighted chains, and two weighted vests were the items. Whatever we started the race carrying, we could not finish carrying the same item. In my opinion, carrying the medicine balls were the toughest. Team Integrity had a great day four, by the way.
Day 5 – The final day had arrived after four extremely hard-fought days. We started bright and early before the sun was up doing a one-on-one Tire Pull. We had to pull our opponent out of the circle around us to win. This was the last individual event of the week. I was in first place, and I was picked to face off against Anthony Lopez. I bet you can’t guess what place he was in? You got it, he was second overall, and this was it for the individual championship. I ended up coming out victorious, and nothing could have beaten that feeling. We then moved on to the dreaded Gauntlet. This event was a long obstacle course involving box jumps, army crawls, rope slams, tire jumps, sledge hammers, and a stair run to the very top of the bleachers on our football field. Once at the top, we had to yell out a Big South opponent to cue the start of the next teammate in line. This was one of the most tiring things we did all week, definitely not a favorite by any means. To finish up the week, we had a team Tug-of-War event. This involved classic tug-of-war rules and was an intense, competitive way to wrap up the week.
The coaches calculated all of the scores after the last day. Not only was I the individual champion, but also my team, Team Integrity, came out on top in the Camel Strong Challenge. However, it would have been a great week no matter who won. Being able to compete with and against all of my teammates brought us closer without a doubt. It was rough and hard to endure at times, but I’d do it all over again with these guys in a heartbeat. Next year’s Challenge Week will be here before we know it. I wish I could slow down time because my college years seem to be flying by.
See the full video recap of the Camel Strong Challenge below! Until next time and as always, Roll Humps!
