Seemingly everyone was bouncing a basketball in the John Amos Field House gymnasium when I walked in on Thursday morning, July 16. In just a few minutes, 3B would take on 5B in their first basketball games of pyc 2015.

Head basketball instructor Steven Privratsky told me at the start of class that his basketball staff had picked the and A and B teams, unlike previous years when the counselors chose. He said this gave the staff more control of the flow of the games and also allowed players to be rewarded for their performance in the first instructional class.

After the A and B teams warmed up on opposite sides of the court, Mr. Privratsky blew the whistle to get things started. He asked me to operate the scoreboard for the A-team contest.

To the right of my position at center court, the A teams traded baskets in a back-and-forth battle. Privratsky refereed on his own, quite a tall task for anyone.

Meanwhile, from what I could tell of the B game to my left, 3B was digging quite a hole for themselves. Assistant instructor Kieren Underwood took charge of that game while fellow assistant Stephanie Cocomise kept score. I was at times distracted from my score keeping duties for the A team by the melee taking place on the B-team court. Mr. Underwood frequently halted the game to strongly stress to the inexperienced players the importance of spacing and moving without the basketball on offense.

I was particularly excited to attend this class because basketball is probably the most exciting sport to watch at PYC. The unique blend of skill and relative inexperience in the camper games makes for a completely unpredictable contest. Oh, and my brother Micah played for dorm 3B. His counselor, Justin Yocum, was my counselor at pyc Australia many moons ago.

At the half, 3B and 5B were separated by the slimmest of margins in the A game. I jokingly interviewed Mr. Yocum for his thoughts on his team’s performance so far by holding my cell phone to his face as a make-believe microphone. He was disturbed by the multitude of lead changes, and he stressed that defense was the key to victory.

3B players laughed at his animated response. But they seemed to have taken it to heart as they jumped out to a small lead in the second half on the strength of several rebound put-backs by Caleb and a drive or two to the hoop by my brother. Logan also put on a surprising performance, possibly the best of anyone.

But due to a widespread defensive lapse for the next several minutes, 5B regained their lead and pushed it to eight points. 3B lost their men on back-door cuts seemingly 10 times straight, leading to easy layup after easy layup.

One disapproving look from Mr. Yocum helped 3B get back on track. Befitting of the blow-for-blow nature of the game, 3B surged to a tie—31-31—with about eight minutes to go. It all came down to which team had enough energy to make one final push. 5B’s Isaiah reached another level when it mattered most, driving to the basket for layups or getting fouled and shooting free throws. His dorm proved the more enduring of the two dorms on this day, closing out a 44-35 victory with a dominant finish. 5B’s

5B’s B-team followed suit, trouncing 3B by a final count of 34-13. From what I could tell from glimpses of that game, Canadian first-time camper Elam was a rare positive contributor in 3B’s losing effort.

Both dorms formed opposing lines at center court, a gauntlet of sorts. Stephanie Cocomise ran sprints behind both lines, building suspense for the awarding of the tickets. 3B’s Seth, a B-team star, was pushed in the middle to run the gauntlet.

A sweat-soaked 3B ended the class with a rousing cheer: “Thanks for balling, 5B and basketball staff!”