Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines a catalyst as “an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.” 

Keeping with that definition, the coaching staff of the Brookings-Harbor High School football team created an event to provoke over 20 freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors to become leaders and better people.

“We want to make more than football players,” Assistant Coach Ted Burdett said. “We want to make fine individuals – fine citizens.”

The agent for change in this case was the final event of the Bruins Speed Week camp called The Catalyst: a series of seven challenges staged on the beaches at Pistol River.

The brainchild of Burdett, The Catalyst is modeled after a Marine Corps’ youth training camp event called The Crucible.

“The kids really liked it last year,” Burdett said. “Those who are coming back seem to be really excited.”

The Catalyst is in its second year and has seen some refining in this run.

“It was really intense,”said team captain Will Du Four said of this year’s event. “Players who came last year expected some of the same things, but they changed it up. The made it much harder.”

“I don’t think it was harder,” co-captain Dylan Habiger said. “Of course I weigh 60 pounds less this year.”

“Even though as a big dude I dread this overall, you build a team experience,” he added. “My team helping me up the hill was something I won’t forget.”

Habiger’s experience seemed typical of the overall response from members of the team. Every player who was asked how they felt about the event responded with, “It was a great team-building exercise,” or something very similar.

The coaching staff selected captains who chose their teams of five or six members, and then led them through the seven challenges.

Beginning with a staggered start, each of the teams was timed for the entire event. The winner was the team with the shortest time for all of the challenges.

The first challenge was to pick up a 6-inch diameter, 20-foot long section of rope and carry it to the bus over 200 yards away, and then back up a hill to return it to its original location.

The second challenge forced the teams to roll a driftwood log that seemed to weigh close to 600 pounds to a set spot and back again before setting off on challenge number three, the hill climb.

The climb was approximately 75 feet through loose sand and proved to be one of the toughest challenges for many of the teams.

Most groups pushed and pulled their heavier members to the top of the hill rather than coax them verbally.

The fourth challenge found the teams bear-crawling up and down a 20-foot tall sand dune three times.

“I’m so glad we got to pass that station,” Habiger said of the bear crawl. “It would’ve killed me.”

Habiger’s team was able to skip the event because they passed the team in front of them.

The fifth challenge was to carry a 5-foot diameter inflatable canvas ball 100 yards and back again without dropping it, resting it on one’s head or bringing it below shoulder level.

The sixth challenge was easier than a teething baby learning to drool – for the quarterbacks on the team: hit a 4-foot diameter circle with a football thrown from the top of a hill 50 feet away.

Shifting winds kept some individuals from hitting the circle until their seventh or eighth try while some hit the circle on their first shot.

The final challenge was a 100-foot swim across the lagoon and back. The cold water had the athletes complaining about the temperature at the same time they were appreciating the soothing effect the water had on painful muscles.

Not only did the challenges have a physical aspect to them, they also had a built in lesson.

“Every task had something about it,” Burdett said. “Character, teamwork, morality, pride, honor and respect were all addressed by the challenges today.”

Following the challenges, Head Coach Joe Morin grouped players into two larger teams for a game of Catalyst Ball. 

A cross of football, soccer and wrestling, Catalyst Ball finds players trying to push, pull, kick and roll the 5-foot inflatable canvas ball to their end zone.

The athletes were allowed to use any means possible to move the ball including tackling the opposing team to get them out of the way and using wrestling moves to hold them down.

After the sand settled from the air, Morin announced the winners: the gold team made up of Jacob Russell, Brian Blozinski, Chandler Dodd, Dane Hoover and led by senior Jacob McKinney.

“It felt great,” McKinney said of the win. “Being together builds bonds as a team, but it felt great to win.”

The football team faces their next challenge this week as daily double practices begin on Monday and rosters start to take shape.