W.O.W.

“Hey we should get a bunch of camp guys together in the Spring.” Wise words from a wise man. A buddy of mine had this brilliant idea a few years ago. 4 years later I’m happy to report that the W.O.W. is still going strong. For those that don’t know what the W.O.W. is I will explain. It is a weekend (week) for a bunch of camp guys to get together in the Smokey Mountains to enjoy some male bonding. This includes some adult beverages, a possible cigar or 2 and something called the Father Cassidy Competition. This competition is made up of 4 events. In the past these have included a doubles pool tournament and a combine, loosely based off of the college combine run every winter in Indianapolis. We compete in these events and then depending on what place you take in that event you are awarded a certain number of points. This year’s competition included the following competitions. Singles pool tournament, a Baggo Tourney, Poker tournament and a whiffle-ball home run competition. The competitors for the Cassidy competition included myself and my buddies, Dave, Ford, Miller, Kiq, Timmy, Sean, Blaine, Tyler, Hurley, and Joe.

The first competition was a Texas Hold-em poker tournament. I myself was looking
forward to this event but some were a little disappointed it was scheduled at the same time as “The Office”. Thankfully for him he was the first one out and didn’t have to miss much of the show. The finally four came down to myself, Blaine, Kiq and Sean. Sean was the first to go followed by Kiq. After an hour of battling back and forth with some screaming over poker rules Blaine went all in. Thinking Blaine was bluffing I called his bluff. I was dead wrong and Blaine was victorious.

The Top five scores after he first event:
1st place: Blaine 300 pts
2nd place: myself at 250 pts
3rd: Kiq with 225 pts
4th: Sean with 200 pts
5th: Joe with 175 pts

The 2nd competition on Friday afternoon was a Baggo tournament. Baggo it is a brilliant game made up of a slick board and bean bags you toss at the board. Included in the field of 11 players were 4 former American Camp Association Baggo champions. Joe (2007 winner), Miller (2008 winner), myself (2008 winner), Sean (current champion). I had brought two Baggo sets on the trip but unfortunately my baggo set had been eaten by mice. Awesome. So we were down to one set. The game of Baggo is best played on a flat surface. Finding this flat surface while staying at a resort in the Smokey mountains can be a bit of a challenge. Thankfully were able to find some flat ground. The first game of the day pitted Joe vs. Dave. After battling back and forth for about 45 minutes Joe finally beat Dave. The rest of the afternoon was a tournament filled with beers being thrown down, players screaming obscenities, and 2 of the greatest come backs ever seen in a Cassidy tournament. In games played to 15, Ford came back from a 14-0 deficit to beat his opponent. We also got to witness Dave losing the very first game of the day and then coming all the way back to face Joe in the Championship. Dave beat Joe in the first championship game but because Joe still had to lose twice faced him again. Joe finally put an end to Dave’s winning streak and beat him to take the Baggo Tourney Championship.

Top 5 after the 2 events.
1st: Joe 475 pts
2nd: Blaine at 463 pts
3rd: Kiq with 425 pts
4th: Dave with 325 pts
5th: Myself with 300 pts

The 3rd competition on Saturday afternoon was to be knife throwing. Unfortunately after a few worries of getting arrested and the cheap knives breaking we decided to go with the safer Whiffle-ball tournament. This event was fun but a little sloppy. One of the contestants found out how wet the field was when he went to retrieve a ball and ended up muddy one side of his body. The rules for this competition were fairly simple. Each participant had 10 outs to get as many home runs as they could. Since it was whiffle-ball we designated a home run as getting the ball out of the in-field on the fly. Any ball not a home run or a whiff when swinging consituted an out. The top 3 scores would advance to the 2nd round. Dave and Joe advanced with 4 home runs. Sean and Tyler both had 3 home runs so they competed in a hit-off to determine who would advance. Sean was able to defeat Tyler and move on to the finals. After each of the competitors hit one home run they each took another 5 outs. Here Dave was able to defeat the others with 5 home runs while Joe and Sean weren’t able to hit one out.

Top 5 after 3 events.
1st: Joe with 713 pts
2nd: Dave with 625 pts
3rd: Blaine with 526 pts
t-4th: Kiq and Sean with 488 pts

The 4th and final event was the singles pool tournament. It was an exciting event with crazy shots, huge upsets and the first appearance of the “Purple Monster” on the weekend. Much suspense though was taken out of the event when Joe locked up at least a 4th place finish in pool. This allowed Joe to take home the Father Cassidy Trophy and mark his place in the history of the W.O.W. Kiq ended up beating Joe in the finals of the pool tournament. Thanks to all the guys who made it a great weekend with a lot of great competition.

The final standings for the Father Cassidy Memorial Trophy Competition
1st: Joe at 963 pts
2nd: Dave at 850 pts
3rd: Kiq at 788 pts
4th: Sean at 688 pts
t- 5th: Blaine & Pat A. at 576 pts
7th: Timmy at 514
8th: Hurley at 501 pts
9th: Ford at 463 points
10th: Tyler at 400 points
11th: Miller at 389 points