The poles freshman Alex Ketterman was supposed to be building her tent with were too long. They wouldn’t fit. There was no way. She was getting more frustrated with every passing second. But she didn’t have time to get frustrated, she had to win.

On Friday Sept. 16, social studies teachers Anthony Del Puppo and Jake Hollin held a “camp off” between their advisories to see which advisory group could build a tent first.

The competition required the girls from each advisory to set up a camping tent without aid.  After the tent was set up, all of the boys from each advisory performed 10 push-ups and then the entire advisory, excluding the advisor, entered the tent.  Hollin’s advisory was the first to complete all three tasks.

Though the camp off was the first competition this year between the two advisories, they have a rivalry from last year.

Last year, Del Puppo’s advisory won a saltine cracker eating contest against Hollin’s.  To win, each advisory was required to finish an entire box of saltine crackers without drinking water.

This year’s first competition was originally supposed to be Pictionary.  “I scoffed at the idea of doing Pictionary.  I thought he[Hollin] was more competitive than that,” Del Puppo said.

It was Hollin’s idea to have only the girls build the tents.  “It’s because we have the strongest girls out of every advisory,” Hollin said.

Del Puppo and Hollin used different methods to prepare their teams for the competition.  “We just showed them how to set up a tent,” Del Puppo said.

Hollin said he used “a lot of training and some motivational speeches” to prepare his team. “We’ve been working hard,” he said.

Within minutes, Hollin’s advisory had its tent set up while Del Puppo’s advisory was struggling to put up the tent.

After the competition was over, freshman and member of Del Puppo’s advisory Alex Ketterman voiced her frustration to her teammates by stating that “the poles were too long.”

While Hollin’s girls didn’t have trouble with the size of their tent poles, Del Puppo’s girls visibly struggled with their poles, which spanned the length of Hollin’s classroom.  Hollin had to say “Don’t put a hole in my screen” when Del Puppo’s girls almost stabbed through it.

Del Puppo and his advisory believed that Hollin rigged the tents and poles that he provided. Hollin’s response was “How could I have cheated?  They picked their tent.”

“If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough,” a member from Hollin’s advisory, senior Alex Hutton, said.

Another cause for disagreement was the prize that the winning team received.  While Hollin believed that the winning team was to receive homemade cupcakes, Del Puppo believed that the competition was for bragging rights.

The bell signaling the end of advisory toned before either of the disagreements was resolved.

Elise Adamson is a News  Editor on The Patriot and jcpatriot.com