The Washington herald., 1917-12-17
CAMP MEADE Is
ATHLETICCITY
Directors of .Cantonments
Plan to Reach Soldiers
with Some Sport.


lation Camp Meade is Maryland's
second city. In athletics the great
cantonment down Anne Arundel
county way comes closer to ranking
first. Listed there are 5000 ath-
letes, some whose names are now
written in glaring type upon the
pages of sportdom's history and
others who must wait the time.
when across the broad Atlantic, in
the greatest competition since the
worlds birth, their training will
bring them fame.
Every soldier at Meade. before
many months elapse, will be an ath-
lete if he is not already so. Down
there are football players, in whose
ears have rung the cheers of the
multitudes at the country's fore
most gridiron classics; diamond ath-
letes who have acknowledged the
applause of the mad thousands at
crucial big league games and ath-
lctes who have been praised and
petted for accomplishments in ev-
cry other conceivable branch of
constructed the greatest athletic or
ganization imaginable. From the
best known among them have been
selected the members of an athletic
board, under the jurisdiction of
which sports will flourish until the
competitors, by then trained down
to a point where they will be as
physically fit If not more so than
the fighting representatives of any
other nation. march away to take
their places in the struggle for dem
ocracy.
The government. in the hustle and
hustle of preparedness, has been quick
to realize the benefit of athletics. Box
ing and instructors for all other
sports are being rapidly appointed
for all the camps. At Meade an
athletic board controls the entire
works, but plans are now under way
for the placing in the different regi-
ments of the most efficient instruct
ors. In this athletic work the Y.
NJ. C. A. and the Knights of CO.
lumbus are doing wonderful work in
backing up those in charge. H. F.
Sweet, of the Y. NJ. c. A, is one
of the prime movers in athletics. He
is always keeping things on the
move and is one of the most valua-
Bile cogs in the camps athletic ma
chinery.
Boxing, which experts contend will
stand the soldiers in good stead when
hand-to-hand fighting comes, is al
ready making great headway. Week.
ly bouts are now the order of things.
and. besides training for the con-
testants. they furnish splendid en-
tertainment for the others. This is
one OF the most popular sports at
Meade, and, due to the great amount
Of interest, 1t has attracted, many
Of tho boys to whom a boxing glove
might have been a pillow heretofore,
are developing into nifty exponents
of the manly art Of self-defense.
There are also at Meade a number
of professionals or boys who. before
Uncle Sans call came, were making
their way in the pugilistic game. Con-
tests among them are always of the
keenest.
Just now the plans for soccer and
basketball are being given the lead
over all others in the athletic line.
These are two of the most popular
branches of winter sports and shortly
regimental comes will make things
hum about the cantonment. A regi-
mental soccer league Is now In the
process of organization, and when
ready, will be one of the largest CIR
cults OF its kind ever attempted.
There will be no les than Is teams,
many of the members of which have
made regulations for themselves when
playing on elevens of Maryland and
Pennsylvania. In charge Of the Soc
GER arrangements is Lieut.. Smith. of
the 314th Ammunition Train, while to
act as his helpmate he has no other
than Capt. Thayer. formerly Of the
University Of Pennsylvania, and an
All-American Intercollegiate soccer
choice. The game could not be In
hands better than those of these two
officers.
Two basketball leagues are being
formed, and judging from the great
wealth Of promising material, local
lovers of the sport may find them
selves journeying to the cantonment
to get their fill. There will be
league for officers, in which no less
than II quintets will flght it out for
top honors. while 10 aggregations will
be entered in the organization for the
drafted men. Practically all the con-
tests in the soccer and basket-baIf
leagues will be played on Wednesdays
and Saturdays, when visitors are al
lowed in the camp without passes.
BASKETBALL, too, Is In most efficient
hands, for the director IS Lieut.. Gra-
ham, of the 315th Infantry, who was
assistant coach at the University of
Pennsylvania