Dog days of summer at the Club

Suzie Harrison

While most are doing their best to get out of the sun and hopefully

gel somewhere, children at the Boys and Girls Club of Laguna Beach

are utilizing the club’s gym to play games like soccer and capture

the flag.

“In the summer we have all kinds of different activities,” said

Joe Derichsweiler, who is club’s director. “We have field trips, we

took them to Knott’s, and we have a day at the beach this Friday --

all the kids are going to meet at Woods Cove.”

They had a carnival in July and their last field trip is to Wild

Rivers on Aug. 20. They’ll also be having their last ever sleepover

in this building before the new one is built and it’s coming up soon.

It was surprising to learn that there are fewer children who come

to the club during the summer than there are during the school year.

“In the summer we usually have 75 to 100 kids a day,” Derichsweiler said. “We usually have 150 and 175 during the school

year. “In the summer, there’s not as much homework and the field

trips make it more exciting for the kids.”

Children can work on art projects or computers, but most of the

time the children play group games and organized activities.

“We have wacky relays, the mingle game for kids to get to know

each other, three-wall soccer, four-goal soccer and dice games with

teams,” Derichsweiler said. “We make up fun and original games for

the kids -- Jurassic Park, Shark Island and mostly tag games.”

On Tuesday, the gym was the place to be where each side was

divided into two sections with two different games going on.

For Jurassic Park, the children put a basket in the middle of the

court and their challenge is to capture the white dinosaur eggs.

“The kids with the red shirts are the kind that spit and if they

catch you you’re out,” Derichsweiler said. “The blue shirts can run

around and free you. The other kids are the poachers, trying to get

all the dinosaur eggs in the basket.”

The teams are dispersed fairly with big and small children on each

side.

On the other side of the gym, the ever-popular game capture the

flag was being played. Each team, one being yellow and the other red,

face off and when it’s called for them to go they try to capture the

opposite colors flag and bring it home into their goal. The way they

are stopped is if someone pulls a flag from the person.

The strategies were diverse with some runs up the middle or to the

far side -- there were even some zigzag plays maneuvered for a point.

“The hardest part is having to get the flag and bring it to your

side,” Tommy Nixon, 10, said.

Nate Everhart, 8, who just made a score was modest about his

skill.

“Trying to get the flag is the most exciting part,” Nate said. “My

favorite part is scoring.”

Ben Cote, 10 said that the biggest challenge was getting to the

other side.

“That’s hard because they have good defense,” Ben said.

Brett Peterson, 11, like most the other kids, said that they liked

having fun.

“I like that you get to pull the flags off, guard, score and have

fun,” Brett said.