Sports Camp in Ellenville, N.Y
August 1 - 14, 2010

"The “World Cup” at CYM Sports Camp 2010
Ellenville, NY"

Every four years, the world spends approximately one month following all the excitement and fun of the World Cup of Soccer as it did this past June and July. This year, 77 children of the Ukrainian American Youth Association (CYM) had the opportunity to experience their own World Cup when they attended Sports Camp at CYM’s “Oselia” in Ellenville. This year’s camp, which ran Aug. 1-14, was named in honor of General Roman Shukhevych, Ukrainian sportsman and famous Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), and had as its theme “The World Cup of Soccer.”

Every cabin represented a country and every day it played against another country in non-athletic competitions, including who could attempt to speak the most Ukrainian, room cleanliness, marching skills, timeliness for roll-calls, and who could sing the best. The “countries” that participated in this “World Cup” were the Republic of South Africa, Canada, Australia, England, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, France, Belgium and Estonia. While the Republic of South Africa competed because it was the host country of the 2010 World Cup, the other nine countries are those in which CYM has its branches (as well as in the U.S. and Ukraine). Going with the theme, “Komanda” (camp managers) members would use vuvuzelas (the controversial, loud soccer horns heard during the World Cup this summer) for roll-calls, a card system was set up to punish bad behavior and unwillingness to speak Ukrainian, and each cabin made soccer scarves for its country. This competition helped campers build teamwork skills and enabled a fun level of competition to make camp more interesting.

Of course, the campers had come to learn how to play sports and they definitely had a good time doing so. The swimming program, lead by Mark Bobriwnyk (Hartford, CT) the first week and Vika Mosuriak (Whippany, NJ) the second week, spent its time working on different strokes and practicing dives. Bohdan Szafran (Hartford) and Zenon Betley (Passaic, NJ) helped prepare the softball campers by working on their fielding, batting, catching and throwing skills. The tennis players, who were coached by Adrian Bobriwnyk (Hartford), practiced their serves, backhands, forehands as well as other techniques, while Peter Kolinsky (Hartford) and Danny Puschak (Passaic) taught the volleyball campers the basics of serving, setting, bumping and making smart decisions during matches.

For the first week, Terry Reid (Boston, MA) led the track-and-field program, and Mark Bobriwnyk and Dan Nysch (Philadelphia) took over for the second week. They taught the campers the keys to success in shot-put, sprints, high jump and long-distance running, which will help those campers at the annual “Zlet” CYM youth competition held on Memorial Day weekend. Coaches Andrew Kudryk (Passaic), Mykola Kucyna (Whippany), Roman Tabatchouk (Whippany) and Mike Hlushko (Yonkers, NY) spent another summer at camp teaching our potential soccer greats about passing, shooting and making wiser decisions in game situations. Theodore Bodnar (New York) went over weightlifting skills during the first week as a second-sport option.

CYM Sports Camp participated in the annual Olympiad sponsored by the Ukrainian Sports Federation of USA and Canada (USCAK) during a two-day event. The campers competed against New Jersey’s “Chornomorska Sich” camp in tennis and swimming on the first day at the Soyuzivka resort, and in track races, soccer and volleyball on the second day at CYM’s Oselia. The CYM campers performed very well at the Olympiad, including sweeping all team sports – winning the volleyball competition and both soccer games (in dramatic penalty kicks). The campers had a great time incorporating everything they learned in the first several days into these competitions.

Just like at any other CYM camp, the campers took part in daily singing, which was led by Andrij Stasiw of New York. They first learned “The Prayer for Ukraine” (“Bozhe Velykyj Yedynyj”) and sung it at Divine Liturgy on Sunday, and later sung UPA songs to further connect the camp to Roman Shukhevych. They also learned several traditional Ukrainian folk songs, which they later sang at the camp’s traditional bonfire (“vatra”) along with the skits prepared by each country. The camp also held two dances.

Sports Camp once again embarked on a fun field trip this year. Sticking with the soccer theme, the camp took two buses to Red Bulls Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, where the camp watched the Major League Soccer teams Toronto FC and New York Red Bulls in a close battle. The campers had fun watching the professionals play soccer, chanting with the rowdy supporters section, and cheered very loudly when “CYM Sports Camp” was shown on the video board during halftime. The Red Bulls won the game 1-0.

The placing countries in this World Cup competition showed a lot of heart, teamwork and effort and deserve much recognition for their perseverance. The Republic of South Africa defeated Australia in the third-place game and Argentina, the youngest boys in camp, edged out England to win the camp’s World Cup competition.

Sports Camp was once again a success due to the hard work of many people, primarily, those who ran the camp: Commandant – Theodore Bodnar; Head Counselor – Mark Bobriwnyk; Director of Education – Andrew Leskiw (Philadelphia); Secretary – Christopher Rizzo (Whippany); and Medical Officer – Crystyna Kobyleckyj (New York). These individuals deserve much credit for enabling the camp to run as smoothly as it did. In addition, a sports camp couldn’t happen without the coaches who teach the sports who, once again, did a remarkable job helping the campers better their game. Lastly, a special thank-you goes out to all of the counselors (“vporyadnyky”) and senior counselors (“obozni”) who acted as the parents, older siblings, and head coaches of the campers during these two weeks.

Before anyone could realize it, Sports Camp had ended, leaving the campers and counselors with many new friends and memories, as well as the desire to return to CYM’s “Oselia” next summer for more camping!

By: Andrew Leskiw