OH, MOM: Daniel Planter gets a hug from his mother during McDonogh's Camp Red Eagle.
TOP OF THE WORLD, MA: Matt Pente (top) gets a boost from his dad, Tony, after winning a match at McDonogh's wrestling camp, Camp Red Eagle.
(See video interviews and highlights below)
As the fifth and final day of
McDonogh's Camp Red Eagle came to an end, camp counselor, Karen Janiga, surveyed the campus in general, and a group of early elementary school student in particular who were soaking themsevles in a nearby sprinkler.
"It's been a pretty, hot, long week, so we're just letting the kids play in the sprinklers and have fun," said Janiga, from behind a pair of reflector sunglasses.
"I'm actually part of camp Red Eagle here at McDonogh, and I'm in charge of the games section, so we play games with the kids. There's a game called Capture The Flag, and a game called Pirate Ship. We play Dragon Tail Tag -- any game that you can think of," Janiga said.
"We usually have some 40 or 50 kids come at a time, so there are a lot of big games and we can have a lot of kids participating at once and nobody sitting out," Janiga said. "Every day, we send one group fishing, so they go out to the pond on campus, so they catch a lot of Blue Gills, and if they're lucky a Large Mouth Bass."
Other activities on the campus included camps for lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, and wrestling, the latter of which was overseen by McDonogh wrestling coach, Pete Welch, with help from his team members such as state champs Kramer Whitelaw and Ben Levin, as well as
Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association champ Albert Woody and MIAA runner-up Eric Filipowicz.
Within McDonogh's fieldhouse, camp counselor, Katherine Connaghan, a Wilde Lake graduate who attends Towson University, worked with girls on their volleyball skills.
In another portion of the gymnasium, wrestlers took turns executing takedowns and pinning combinations during a live "mini-tournament," during which Matt Pente won an 87-pound bout, 6-1, over his rival Nathan Cox.
Asked what he did well, Pente said, "Legs."
"We wrestle live all week long. You can wrestle five matches a day," said Matt Pente, a travel-team member of the Howard County Warhawks wrestling program, coached by Danny Ricker and Alex Pagnotta Sr.
"[Ricker] makes it fun, and not boring," said Pente has been wrestling for four years.
"I only wrestled two matches [with the Warhawks,] because I came up and went from [recreation leagues] to travel," said Pente. "I did pretty good. I lost about 10 matches. I came in fourth at the MAWA regionals in Salisbury."
An 'A' student and a seventh grader, Matt Pente took three years off from wrestling when the Pentes moved out to Hawaii, said his father, Tony.
"Even though he's wreslting a lot of kids that have a lot more experience than him, he's been holding his own. He started this year in rec, and he was just going through kids, left and right," said Tony Pente.
"That's when the Warhawks welcomed us into the Warhawks' family, and Matt took to it right away," said Tony Pente. "He just really loves the intensity of the workouts."
Outside, near a water hose, a 6-year-old girl named Molly talked about the fun and games played during the camp, including her favorite -- dodgeball.
"I'm playing in the sprinkler right now, and I've been going to fun games," Molly said. "We've been playing dodgeball and other stuff."
Asked why she favored dodgeball, Molly said, "because it's really fun," adding, "you've got to have touch, and you have to really practice" in order to be good at it.