Confidence Comes from Community

We were down nineteen to nothing. 

I want you to sit with that for a second. Nineteen to nothing in a basketball game, in a tournament we hosted here at Bauercrest this week with camps Tel Noar, Tevya, and Yavneh. That is a deficit that breaks most teams. It breaks their spirit, their communication, their belief in one another. I’m proud to say, our Junior Boys did not break.

On Thursday afternoon, in the Rec Hall, led by the voice and heart of Jacob,which was echoed loudly by David, and further cemented by his lights out three-point shooting, our Junior Boys clawed their way back from 19-0. Point by point, possession by possession, with the entire camp packed in behind them, the noise growing with every basket until it became louder than anything I have heard before in all my years at camp. With 17 seconds left, they tied it at 37. The placed erupted. 

Our boys ultimately lost by four points in the final seconds. But losing by four after trailing 19-0 is not a defeat. It is a statement. A statement about what happens when a group of boys trusts each other completely and refuses to let the scoreboard tell them who they are.

And two nights earlier, in a completely different setting, something equally remarkable happened. Our Waiters and CIs traveled to Camp Tevya in Brookline, New Hampshire for the 2026 Jewish Arts Festival, joining camps Pembroke, Crane Lake, Yavneh, Young Judea, Tel Noar, and Tevya for an evening built around this year’s theme, “Be The Light.” In front of approximately 500 peers and adults from the New England Jewish camping world, our boys took that stage and owned it. Our Waiters and CIs channeled the spirit and personality of this place into something that was creative, courageous, and entirely theirs. They were not performing for the sake of performing. They were a group of brothers who trusted each other enough to show a side of themselves that does not always make it onto the court or the field, connecting with their Jewish identity and their shared camp experience in a way that was genuine and completely their own. Whether it being down 19-0 on a basketball court, or performing in front of 500 people on a stage, our boys continue to find something in themselves that could not have existed without the community around them. The confidence they showed was the product of a genuine trust, shared purpose, and an unwavering commitment to one another.

But the Rec Hall and the performance stage were not the only places our boys found their confidence this week. On Thursday night, every bunk came together for MTV Night, putting together and performing their own original skits in front of the entire Bauercrest community. What I watched was creativity, teamwork, and an unequivocal bond between brothers who were willing to be vulnerable, silly, and completely themselves. The courage it takes to perform in front of your entire camp community is real. And every single bunk found it, because they were not doing it alone. They were doing it together.

They found it in the electives that define a Bauercrest summer too. Whether it was sailing across Lake Attitash for the first time or working alongside Yoni, an Israeli Ninja Champion, in our Ninja intensive, our boys were challenged every single day to try something that asked something of them. They are asked to show up, to push through, and to discover what they are capable of because of the brotherhood they know is standing behind them.

In between all of it, this week was full in every other way. Despite the rain, our campers competed in multiple intercamp tournaments and brought energy and heart to every one of them. We took trips to In the Game and made a stop at a Bauercrest favorite, Prince’s PIzza. We closed the week out today with a trip to Camp Pembroke for a day of field games and fun with Camp Avoda. Of course we arrived back home for Shabbat dinner before the evening’s main event, the CI / Waiter game.  

After a long week sometimes I like to pause and take a deep breath. Tonight I did so in the grove, watching your boys stand arm in arm singing the same prayers that have been sung here for 95 years. The boys who arrived at Bauercrest in June, or most recently for the start of second session are not the same boys who will leave once their session ends. It is not because we have magically changed them. it is because everyone in this community gives one another the space, the safety, and the brotherhood to express who they truly are. 

Confidence does not get handed to a boy here. It gets built in the moments when a teammate calls your name across the court when you are down nineteen. It gets built when a bunkmate stands beside you on a stage in front of 500 people and you know, without question that he is not going anywhere. It gets built on Lake Attitash, in the Ninja course, in the Mess Hall, around the campfire, and in the bunk late at night when conversations become real. 

It gets built in small moments, made by individual boys, choosing every single day to show up for the person beside him. That is the Bauercrest brotherhood. That is what gives a boy the confidence to take the stage, to take the shot, and to take a chance on himself. And that, more than any trophy or scoreboard or performance, is what we are most proud of here. 

And yes, for those of you who were waiting to hear the big news…

the WAITERS won a riveting CI-Waiter game. 

 And of course, they celebrated by jumping in the lake at the end of the game!