Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, Americans everywhere are looking forward to the next major cultural event: college bowl season. (Oh yes, and Christmas!) Between December 15 and January 7, dozens of football teams will play in more than 40 bowl games, from the venerable Rose Bowl (the “Daddy of them All”) to the not-so-famous Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Given the crowded schedule, most athletes stand a much better chance of playing in a bowl game than graduating in four years.
There will still be plenty of teams on the outside looking in, however. And as some of those teams have limped to the end of their losing seasons, TV commentators covering rivalry games have been quick to say things like “This is their bowl game.” And while there’s not (yet) a Losers’ Bracket Bowl or a Toilet Bowl, it’s probably true that most players would rather take down a hated in-state rival than play in a forgettable bowl game in a half-empty stadium on a cold December Tuesday night.
So what in the world does all this have to do with Scouting? I think it’s easy to put so much emphasis on high adventure–as life-changing as it can be–that we forget that most Scouts will never visit one of the four national high adventure bases.
For most Scouts, summer camp is their bowl game. Or the district camporee is their bowl game. Or even a totally forgettable (in your mind) troop outing is their bowl game. And so we owe it to them to make every activity special, even as we encourage them to challenge themselves and expand their horizons.
Need more great troop program ideas? Check out the new edition of The Scoutmaster’s Other Handbook, which is now available in both print and e-book formats at https://www.eaglebook.com/products.htm#scoutmasters.