Nationals 2011… CMU!

Lifted from Aleks Bomis’ [MSU Alum] Facebook

I’m smiling ear to ear about dodgeball this week. I’m smiling because the best run tournament in College Dodgeball’s seven years of existence took place this past weekend.

And I didn’t have a damn thing to do with it.

I’ve always been pretty concerned about where the organization was headed, what it was working towards. I invested a lot of time in it. It and the people who comprise it will forever be a part of me. The leadership and development that went on in the first few years got me accepted into a Top 20 MBA program and Top 100 law school. I’m proud of that and always will be. Dodgeball is on my resume, and I will unabashedly tell interviewers where it’s at and how it got started. Operations, recruitment, administration, marketing – it sounds silly (and it is), but when you add up the manpower and the revenue required to operate the National Tournament (think of all the hotel money), that’s a major accomplishment that most young people don’t have. The group means a lot to me.

I guess that’s probably why I was less than happy with the way things seemed to be headed in the NCDA last year. Things got more competitive and tense, abuse of officials led to officials not caring led to abuse of officials, the concept of winning seemed to outpace the concept of playing this ridiculous game developed by sadistic gym teachers… maybe it’s that I’m from Michigan where the more determined teams and players are, I don’t know. In any case, it eventually came to a head and I thought, “To hell with it. If this is how it’s going to be, I’m out.” That’s when a nice thing happened: the NCDA moved on without much disruption. From rules administration to tournament operations to keeping the peace or anything else, there’s not one thing where I am or would be indispensable. In the early days there weren’t many people committed to the idea of making this crazy idea work. Most of it fell to me. Not that I minded it – heck, it was more to add to my resume. Now there are schools from all over the country and plenty of people each year who have both the skill set and the desire to keep this going. College Dodgeball has reached critical mass. No situation exists today where I’d think “Oh, I need to handle that.” And if you’re not needed, well, you’re probably not wanted either. Maybe the saying “familiarity breeds contempt” has some truth to it. You either die the hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Hey, could’ve been worse – I might’ve been forced out like Mubarak in Egypt.

I’ll cut the maudlin and just line up a few thoughts I wish I had the time or forethought to say to people when I see them in person.

Let’s take the big one first: To the teams that think I hate them – I don’t. Sure, you may have a couple current or former players I don’t or didn’t care for, but nine times out of ten a negative remark about them was immediately followed with “I don’t get it, the rest of ’em seem like nice guys.” Same applies in reverse, people can dislike me and like Team MSU in general. It always comes down to people.

I’ve never tried to screw a team over as an official. I’ll go a step further with that: I don’t think any official has ever intentionally tried to fix a dodgeball game played between grown men and women. Have I ever made remarks to the contrary? Darn straight. The majority of people reading this have as well, however, so don’t act surprised that The Old Man shoots his mouth off like everybody else. Doesn’t it make it right, and for that I apologize.

Sometimes you (I) need to just shut up and let others try things instead of going “No no, I know better, do it this way.” For example, there might be a skills competition or an all-star game or something else that makes this whole idea better.

Last, and certainly not least, the leadership you all collectively show is phenomenal. That’s the one concept I have difficulty trying to explain to outsiders – that college kids will put time, effort, and thought into how to better organize the activity of striking each other with vulcanized rubber. There are many sport club leagues in existence. Few have as solid a base as the NCDA. None are wholly student-operated.

As for where this takes me from here, I dunno. I’d like to put together an alumni production team to shoot and commentate games in Michigan and maybe Ohio. That’s one area where I do have a leg up on most of the NCDA – being an MSU Athletics cameraman for three years has its benefits beyond the field pass. Eh, we’ll see what happens next year. The facilities have gotten progressively better each year, and a brand new Ryder Center ought to be a great tournament site in 2012.

Now if someone can just start a team at the University of Michigan I could die happy…

Reply, 13 April 2011
Greg Trippiedi [GVSU]

I was kind of where Bomis was a year ago, didn’t know where the NCDA was headed and didn’t know whether the Michigan teams would be able to turn over their rosters entirely and remain competitive. GVSU’s club is about 40% of the size of when I first got there, but the sheer size of the club and the fan base has proven to the only thing unsustainable about it. What we accomplished this year was a complete turnover of the old guard to a new team built almost entirely of Juniors, Sophomores, and Freshman. There’s no doubt in my mind that if GVSU played zero seniors next season (and our three or four best players will probably be seniors), they would still be first or second in the state of Michigan, and that means we’ve done our job to turn the program over away from players who won the four championships. To bring home the hardware in a transitional year would have been great, but we still exceeded all of our own expectations, except that one.

The work that Josh and Felix (and everyone, really) have done down at WKU has made all the difference. The first time they ever played us (Oct. 2007, @UK), Felix was still in high school, and their club was two months old and we were at the very peak of our dominance as a program. It was hard to imagine after that game what they would do with that program, but really, the NCDA was pretty close to becoming a regional thing instead of a national one, and I have to credit Western Kentucky exclusively for changing that course. If this years nationals is the point at which we look back at non-Michigan teams starting their run of becoming title contenders, so much the better. Kentucky looks like it can become a college dodgeball hotbed. UofL isn’t good right now, but they have a much better chance of becoming good with WKU and UK around them to play against.

If someday, Kentucky and Michigan are two regions where all the teams are really good, then the NCDA can matter on a national level. For any team east of the Mississippi River, a quality opponent would never be more than a few hours away. A lot has changed in a year, and it’s pretty much all been very promising.

WIU Round Robin

MACOMB – DePaul Dodgeball joined Western Kentucky and Wisconsin Platteville for a Round Robin hosted by Western Illinois on October 23.

This week was a monster for DePaul. In preparing for our matches we had to weed 17 people of our 40 plus regular ballers. The greater majority of our veterans have been injured in non dodgeball related injuries, while others had work and all the right excuses. Then on the Wednesday before, one of our drivers texted us and said he broke his collarbone. By our Thursday dodgeball night, we had barely enough car space for 14 players, bringing just five people with tournament experience. And I got my neighbor’s bike was stolen on Tuesday.

We received our club shirts just a week before travel, and with no free time I managed to heat-press the traveling shirts so we might look like a team. Kevin Hill managed to get the waivers in, and I managed to take two of my cars to fill the space left by our other driver’s injury.

We ended up leaving only 15 minutes late, a small record for DePaul Dodgeball.  But after 60 minutes of driving in the rain, Kevin’s car suffered a blown out tire near Ottawa, IL. He had to wait more than two hours for a new tire to be installed. In the mean time, 8 members of the team continued onto Western. By this time, Western and the rest of the teams had already started playing. We made a small pit stop, and the Chicago Eight decided to keep going as we were more than half-way there.

Arriving an hour or two late, DePaul is forced to play three matches in a row, with only 8 people for the first match. Fortunately, UWP was awesome and really fun to play since they had only brought 11 people. For these 8 person matches, only Kuncklepuck [#54] and myself had any past tournament experience; the rest of our team were  By the time I got out of the car after that forever stretch of road that is Route 34, I didn’t care what really happened.  I wasn’t going to think about the crap week I just had, I wasn’t going to think about the five hour drive in my really small car, I wasn’t going to worry about the shot clock. I just wanted to run around and be really, really loud. And this is what I did.

By our second half with Western Kentucky, reinforcements show up from Kevin Hill’s car, WKU pulls out the crowns, and we continue to have a really fun game. Trick shots, gladiator dodgeball, and pulling an Iron Curtain keeps everyone happy.  Our rookie players really got into our cheers, and it seemed like we had a lot of catches. I believe DePaul definitely had the most fun out of anybody in Macomb.

For the later half of our match with WIU, some of the younger players started getting a little frustrated with how serious WIU was taking the game. I think this might have been part the team being tired from traveling for 5 hours and then playing three straight hours. Another part was the majority of WIU taking dodgeball against DePaul way to serious for the entirety duration of the match. But then again, the majority of DePaul didn’t let it faze them. No matter what they are going to play dodgeball their way, and I’m really proud of the way the team played that whole day.

Since not enough people wanted to stay the night, we decided to hit up Walmart to take advantage of cheaper taxes for the hanging out at home. Then the team had a quick family dinner at Wendy’s before driving home under a full moon. We even managed to stay under budget if you don’t count Kevin’s blown tire.

500 pictures and 500 miles later, DePaul Dodgeball remains undefeated.

NCDA: Headshots Welcome

Story by: Aleks Bomis

Maybe you’re interested in playing a game or sport that’s devoid of all the drills and practices.  It could be that you’re trying to recapture a memory from your youth.  Maybe you’re just looking for activity where “upside your head” is heard frequently.

It’s okay, you can be honest.  You’re among friends.

Anyway, chances are that if you’re on this website, you like the idea of dodgeball.  This is good.  This usually leads to the idea of joining the school intramural league, with their padded foam balls and their no head shot rule.

This is bad.  Forget that garbage, there’s a better alternative: us.

There are three big advantages that the NCDA has over any intramural league, any so-called “pro” league out there, and pretty much everything else.

1 – It’s real dodgeball.  8.5” cheap rubber playground balls that bounce off harmlessly are the weapon of choice.  You’re playing with a huge number of friends.  And yes, you can hit people in the face if you can swing it.

2 – It’s by college kids, for college kids.  No one’s trying to make a buck, there’s no big legislating body issuing bylaws or any of that nonsense, this is about getting together to play people you don’t know and don’t feel bad about smacking around a bit, then possibly hanging out with them afterwards.

3 – It’s a chance for leadership.  This sounds silly, but running a sport club shows you’re able to handle financials, personality conflicts, delegation, and all those other things that employers want an employee to be able to do.  Dodgeball can actually pad your resume if done right.

All colleges and universities are eligible for membership.  All you have to do is register as a student group at your school, find a bunch of people who like to play, and let us know you exist.  We’ve got plenty of teams interested in meeting up for a game.  Put it together and you could start something big at your school.  Check out some of our video clips to get a better idea of what we’re about.  We guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

So get in touch with us already, either to say you’re good to go or to ask some questions.  And if you’re not gonna do that, at least forward this to a friend who’d be interested.  The national tournament is in April and the more the merrier!

2010-11 Season Preview

WIU’s Tim Wohead

1. How many players are returning for your team?
We are only losing two players- Tina Miller and Any Janota- due to graduation. Also for Nationals this year one of our last year’s captains, Paul V., will be studying abroad and possibly won’t attend.

2. What strengths/weaknesses do you anticipate going into the season?
A big strength we have is that we are attracting a lot of incoming freshman and recruiting big arms who have heard of our club now. Our only weakness is financial and being able to travel to all the schools we want to this year. But if there’s a will, there’s a way.

3. What are the areas you’ll look to improve when scouting new players?
You can never have too many big arms on your team but we would also like a couple players that can catch just about anything. And good footwork and agility is a must.

4. What are you goals for this season?
National Champions

5. Why should other teams be scared to play you?
We went to Nationals with one match under our belt. We didn’t start pinching or being strategic until a week before Nationals and we still held the 4th seed after the first day of tournament play. Needless to say with most of our players returning and bringing in better athletes, we are going to be more dangerous.

6. Which teams would you like to play?
We get along well with SVSU so that would be one of them. We would also like to face Michigan State just because we got knocked out by them and I feel that we played like crap and would enjoy a little revenge along with BGSU. Lastly, we would be interested in taking on CMU.

KSU’s co-captain Kyle FitzPatrick

1. How many players are returning for your team?
Definitely lost 2 of our Vets (catchers at that). But overall were a really young team. We just need people to have the time / money to travel.

2. What strengths/weaknesses do you anticipate going into the season?

Strength: Our teams is no longer 70% rookies, and I believe we will be underestimated. Also I have a better grasp of how to manage a team.

Weakness: Money, we may lack some raw athleticism unlike other teams (cough cough GVSU, CMU)

3. What are the areas you’ll look to improve when scouting new players?

We hope to be more active in the scouting procedure. We might try scouting out some middle school dodgeball games for a feeder program.

4. What are you goals for this season?
Having fun, getting new players and improving current players, getting something in the win column. Hopefully attend more tournaments. (Maybe even try to host one.)

5. Why should other teams be scared to play you?
Because you might have fun doing it. Also, we have a unique strategy since even we don’t know what were doing most ofthe time.

6. Which teams would you like to play?
Hopefully we play as many teams as possible. I would like to see more of the native Ohio teams this year since we only played BG, OSU and half of Miami once last year. WIU & NSU were fun, competitive new teams I would like to play again. I personally have never played WPU, EMU, CMU and DePaul. Saginaw (meaning Stein) has already issued a challenge to Kent on the forum. GVSU as long as I don’t fracture me wrist again. Finally, MSU and WKU are always welcomed opponents.

DePaul’s Zigmas Maloni

DePaul Dodgeball will be returning for the start of the dodgeball season with its usual vengeance, and by vengeance we mean beating up on the random freshmen who don’t know how to keep their eyes open.

We’ve lost a handful of our “competitive” roster, but one of the most notable losses has been the graduation of Jack Young. As the face of the team in the league’s eyes, “Jack Attack” has become a herald and guardian of that DePaul Dodgeball decorum. So I’m sure he will be missed.

DePaul’s plans for this season include our normal thing – playing as much dodgeball as our bodies can handle. We have hour and a half practices twice a week, but we invite anyone to play without commitment. We play the game as our childish forbearers did. Our games are a juvenile program of delinquency, where the headshot hug rule substantiates our collegiate goals and ambitions.

In other news, DePaul also plans to do more this season than just throw balls at its own team. We are looking to host matches against other teams, as well as travelling to play nice at other schools.

We are kicking off this commitment by hosting our own tournament on October 2nd, 2010. The Chicago Hat Invitational will mix up the teams and hopefully foster some good times to be had. Any teams looking to participate should check out the NCDA forum and/or aggravate their respective captains.

At the last, we would like to keep up our reputation of playing a really fun game of dodgeball. If there is anything to be said about DePaul Dodgeball, it is that we will always be able to entertain ourselves.

Something to Learn: To Err is Human

Story by: Aleks Bomis

On June 2, 2010, baseball fans witnessed some of the best things about the sport. Detroit Tigers fans will be quick to disagree. Who can blame them? Armando Galarraga, pitcher for the Tigers, had the game of his career, officially retiring 27 out of 28 batters without a hit. The lone standout to Galarraga’s streak would be rookie Jason Donald, chalked up as a single.

The controversy? Donald’s single, the 27th at bat for the Cleveland Indians, was a blown call by umpire Jim Joyce, costing Galarraga a perfect game and a no-hitter. That’s not a matter of opinion, as calls often are. Joyce personally apologized to Galarraga minutes after the game, later saying “I just cost that kid a perfect game” on local radio. Replay showed Donald was approximately 2 feet from the base when Galarraga, then positioned at first, made the catch to force Donald out.

There are a couple of ways to properly frame this scene. The first is to note the rarity of the perfect game. In almost 400,000 games of Major League Baseball, 20 have achieved perfection. Sweeping a presidential election might be the only task more difficult. Galarraga earned that perfect game and should be rightly credited for it. For Joyce to take the rarest of achievements away from a player with a clearly incorrect call is bad for baseball and infuriating for Tigers fans.

The other way to frame this is in terms of what happened after the call by Joyce. If you watch the replay, you’ll see Galarraga’s reaction to the call was one of the calmest responses ever observed. No tirade, no outburst, just a smile. You just don’t see that kind of behavior in professional sports.  Joyce’s actions after the play were equally as rare. Officials make bad calls, but personally apologizing to the aggrieved player and announcing to the media that you screwed up is unheard of.

In short, the participants involved acted the way people are supposed to behave. As the NCDA enters the 2010-2011 season, it’s nice to know officials at the highest level of competitive sports err, sometimes egregiously so, and players at the highest level can act with the docility Galarraga exhibited.

There’s no question officiating has been a sticking point since the NCDA’s inception. Teams need to place a greater emphasis on educating their players on the rules and on how to properly officiate a game. Further, the practice of grabbing a couple freshmen at the last second and telling them to ref needs to end. New players are often in the worst possible position to officiate, having played precious few games themselves.  At the same time, the hysterics some players resort to when receiving an unfavorable call also needs to end. If a man can have history taken away from him and smile, there can be no justification for getting into a shouting match over a dodgeball match.  Hopefully this baseball game and the MLB’s subsequent actions can serve to benefit NCDA operation this coming season.

Chronicling the NCDA’s Rise

Story by: Nick Wright & Aleks Bomis

The following is an excerpt from a message board post recounting the league’s history. A more detailed account may be available the near future.

From Wright:

First exhibition match in college dodgeball history (as far as we know): Ohio State at Kent State. Ohio State won, although the rules were much different, the atmosphere much more of a friendly game to have fun than an actual match. The first real game in the league with two teams and set rules was Delta v MSU, where MSU won. Bomis obviously got the ball rolling on that one as the captain for MSU and as far as I can recall, Ben Murphy acted as such for Delta. This match was the first “Michigan Dodgeball Cup.”

That was the only “regular season” game that year (2004-2005). The then titled “Spartan Dodgeball Invitational (SDI)” acted as the inaugural MDC championship tournament and featured 5 teams: MSU, Delta, Ohio State, Kent State and DePaul, with Nebraska being invited but not showing.

I believe the Saturday round robin portion went as follows:

OSU 6-0 (def Kent St twice, def Delta twice, def MSU, def DePaul)
Kent St 4-2 (def MSU twice, def DePaul, def Delta, loss OSU twice)
DePaul 3-3 (def MSU twice, def Delta, loss Kent St, loss OSU)
MSU 1-4-1 (def Delta, tie Delta, loss Kent twice, loss OSU, loss DePaul twice)
Delta 0-5-1 (loss OSU twice, loss MSU, loss Kent St, loss DePaul, tie MSU)

The Sunday portion of the tournament featured the top 4 teams (Delta did not play because at the time they were not an official organization/club within their school yet, so were deemed ineligible. I imagine part of it also had to do with the uneven number of teams and the amount of times that we were able to use the facilities that we were in.)

Semi Finals:

Kent St def DePaul
OSU def MSU

Finals:

OSU def Kent St 4-2 (OSU trailed 2-1 at halftime)

The next year was the first full year of the league where there was a regular season. Oakland University, Kentucky and of course, GVSU, made their debuts this season. I wish I had the full regular season standings (maybe I can dig them up in another place that I wrote them down, but most of my record keeping of this time period was on the old OSU dodgeball website which was through the now defunct Geocities hosting site).

The only thing I can state for sure is that this year featured the first Ohio State Invitational, which was supposed to be Ohio State, Kentucky and Kent State. Kent State ended up not being able to make it, so it was just OSU welcoming Kentucky into the league by winning 16-4 (The regulation time score was something like 8-2 and we just kept playing for another hour or two since we had the gym space rented.)

I know GVSU stormed onto the scene and dispatched of Delta and MSU in a few individual matches, and then again in the Michigan Dodgeball Cup, so they ended the regular season ranked #1. Both GVSU and OSU were the only undefeated teams that season, but GVSU had played several more regular season games than OSU.

If I’m not mistaken, DePaul hosted their first tournament that year too, which consisted of themselves, MSU, Kentucky and Kansas State, who actually had a team. I think I’m forgetting another team that participated in this one (Delta, maybe), but I know it wasnt GVSU, Kent or OSU. I remember hearing that this tournament was pretty evenly matched and every team had at least one win and at least one loss in the round robin portion. I’m 99% sure MSU won this tournament because I remember Bomis being all excited and telling me all about it in an AIM conversation, adding that the talk of the tournament was “How good GVSU was,” “The Matrix guy has a cannon for an arm” and “Everyone is afraid of OSU’s Big Jon.”

Delta was also vastly improved during the regular season. I remember being really surprised at the number of matches they ended up playing that year (something like 12 or 16 games) and won roughly half of them–they mostly played vs MSU, Oakland and GVSU. I cant remember if Henry Ford Community College, Alma, or Wayne State had a team this year that they played against. Either those colleges had a team and played once or twice, or they were rumored to be starting teams and they didnt quite get off the ground in time for this season. I wanna say they went to the DePaul tournament as well…so they had pretty much played every team in the league at least once except for the two Ohio teams by the time the National Tournament came around.

We went into the 2006 NCDA championship tournament with 8 teams:

GVSU, OSU, Kent St, MSU, Delta, DePaul, Oakland and Kentucky (Kentucky ended up not coming due to financial reasons). They were replaced by a “JV” team (I believe from GVSU, or possibly MSU) to even out the number of games each team would play in the round robin. Because of the increased number of teams, the round robin portion of the tournament was divided into two pools based on regular season rankings/winning percentage/whatever

Pool A: GVSU, Kent St, MSU, GVSU JV
Pool B: OSU, Delta, DePaul, Oakland

Each team would play the other three teams in the pool once. This was due to there being a lot of arm fatigue by the end of the first day in the first year’s tournament.

The results from Day 1:

Pool A-
GVSU : 3-0
Kent St: 2-1
MSU: 1-2
GVSU JV: 0-3

Pool B-
OSU: 3-0
DePaul: 2-1
Delta: 1-2 (to be honest, I dont remember who won the Delta/DePaul game…couldve been Delta)
Oakland: 0-3

So the Single Elimination Championships went like this:

Round 1

MSU def Kent St
Delta def DePaul (these two matches were the first two held as we only had two courts to play on)

followed by

OSU def Oakland (Oakland conceded defeat at halftime, the second half was a massive free-for all among all interested players from any team. Actually this was the highlight of the tournament, lots of fun)
GVSU was awarded a first round bye for being undefeated in round robin play and having more wins in the regular season than OSU

Second Round:

GVSU def MSU
OSU def Delta

Consolation game:

MSU and Delta elected to not play the game and split 3rd place, possibly due to time constraints.

Championship game:

OSU def GVSU 2-1. GVSU led 1-0 at halftime. They won the first game fairly decisively, but then the second game was very drawn out and ended up going all the way to halftime without a point being scored. OSU then came out and won their own fairly decisive game to start the second half. The final full game of the match was a pretty extensive one with that at one point was a 7 on 5 OSU advantage, but then OSU got a couple huge plays to close it out and was able to take the lead with about 2 or 3 minutes left in the second half. GVSU came out blazing, but there just wasnt enough time for them to mount a comeback. This game also got pretty heated at times, but afterwards there was good sportsmanship on both sides and despite this matchup being hyped pretty much all season and it being really close, both sides left with a lot of respect for each other. OSU has since always held GVSU in high regard both in terms of ability (obviously) but also in terms of sportsmanship.

After that, I graduated, moved down south and didn’t get to be part of the league in any fashion in 2007, even as a spectator. So beyond 2006, I cant give you and specific details besides that the next two seasons also featured championship games with GVSU and OSU squaring off but with GVSU winning both of them.

As I can recall, the original founders and captains of the early clubs were:

Kent State: Olsen Ebright (team may have been founded even before him, but he was their primary contact person in 2002-2003). He also came to OSU to represent them when the Today Show from NBC came to film a segment about dodgeball–something which was originally supposed to happen at Kent State, but they were between semesters when NBC wanted to shoot the film, so they came to OSU instead. The clip ended up being less about the growth of dodgeball as a sport at the collegiate level and more as a cheap tie in to the stupid Dodgeball movie. I’m not sure specifically who Kent’s captain(s) were once the NCDA began, but Nick Fantozzi was one of the leaders of the group and was our main contact person when we wanted to get in touch with them for a game.

Ohio State: Considered to be founded by Gavin Mueller and Todd Burns in 1999-2000 (both graduated and moved on before the MDC/NCDA was even an idea). Marc Ybarsabal was then the captain and primary contact for the first season in 2005, with Joe Ryan as the assistant captain. Marc graduated in ’05 and then Joe was the Captain with Zack Mylander and Nick Wright (myself) as the alternate captains. All 3 of us graduated in ’06 and we passed the titles on to Dave Shaffstall and Alex Young after that.

As stated before, Bomis obviously got MSU’s team off the ground and from what I understand, Ben Murphy for Delta (I’m not sure if there were any co-captains or alternate captains for them during the first year of their existence).

I know DePaul dodgeball also existed well before the creation of the NCDA (I believe they were the oldest club in the league predating the year 2000 if I’m not mistaken). I can’t say for sure who founded them, but Ryan “Magoo” McGeehan was their typical contact person in the first two years of the league. For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the other captain that they had, who was a very good player and was a real nice guy in the multiple times I met him. Sorry, I’d know his name if I heard it but I can’t pull it out of my head right now.

I wish I had specific scores of all the games, but at the time, I dont think anyone really knew what the league was going to morph into and that detailed record keeping beyond the very basics was going to be a worthwhile use of time. If I got anything wrong with this, I apologize, but to the best of my knowledge this is all accurate.

From Bomis:

The big thing you need to remember is that for the first 3 or 4 years we inflated the dodgeballs until they were taught. It wasn’t really by design, it just started that way. I can’t imagine playing in the racquetball courts like MSU did those first two years with the throwing speeds people have now. Teams still tried to grip throw, but it wasn’t nearly as fast and you’d often get cases of people’s fingers bleeding from trying to curve the ball inward. I checked out some old footage recently, it looked tame compared to what goes on today. The other important thing to remember is that the shot clock only existed when you had all ten balls, so a 9-on-1 situation could be held indefinitely. There was also no “legit throw” clause, so you’d see some teams *cough cough* roll a ball to the other side to keep from having all 10.

Murphy sent me an email asking if we wanted to play a game, which sounded fun so naturally we accepted. There was a second place plaque and a tarnished little cup for the winner. This cup became the top of the Michigan Dodgeball Cup trophy (which I’m told is made of solid silver). We showed up at some church/community center and played for about an hour. The church staff was ticked because dodgeballs kept hitting the radiator panels, making these awful crashing noises. MSU won 8-3, I’ve got some pics stored on my laptop at home.

Yeah, the real reason Delta couldn’t play Sunday of that first tournament was because I just couldn’t work out a schedule that first year. There was a “must be a student organization” rule which everyone knew about heading in, but Ben seemed to really want it for his group so I figured what the heck, let ’em play on Saturday. I remember the last OSU/MSU score being 8-4.

GVSU… my hatred of them was pre-ordained for so many reasons with that first game. We had to reschedule that game a bunch of times. It wasn’t Dave Soukup’s fault, the athletic department was just being a pain, and then we realized we had scheduled a game on Super Bowl Sunday, so we had to move it again. I was actually fairly upbeat with that first 4-2 loss, we had come off a much-closer-than-it-shoulda-been W against Delta, having goofed around much of the game, but we’d actually tried at GVSU. They wore blue their first year and hadn’t figured out how to be this unstoppable force – yet. I managed to imitate Izzo while I was there – he wasn’t having the best season, and earlier that week while trailing he had called timeout a split second before Mo Ager nailed a 3. The second string team was trailing in the closing minute of the half, Mike Youngs is the only one left, I call timeout so I can sub in Rob Freeman, who was a defensive master… and he makes a catch from about 15 feet away. Rob gets hit about 10 seconds in. Youngs was LIVID. And to be fair I was getting overcompetitive at that point.

Michigan Dodgeball Cup came down to the final seconds, with a throw at Kevin Hankinson going in and out of his hands for the GVSU win. It was tough to call that one from the booth, but it made for a heck of a finish.

The extra team at DePaul’s Chicago Open was Kansas State. Everyone was drained by the time we got to the end, but we managed to pull that one out and sing the fight song and everything. I was almost bouncing off the walls because we had actually managed to string some Ws together after struggling most of the year, Rob Viola got a game-saving OT catch between his legs (I think against Delta). I’m also pretty sure DePaul had some footage of Nick Gebauer getting clocked by a Kansas State player, I mean right into his face.

Oh, and a funny story I just remembered! So like I mentioned earlier, there wasn’t any shotclock rule, and you could roll a ball to the other side and there wasn’t anything in the rules to stop it. Delta had been catching some flak by this point in the year for not doing anything unless they had at least 7 or 8. DePaul decided to flip the script on them, not doing a thing unless they had all 10 balls. Not knowing DePaul’s plan, I wander over to check their score at halftime: 1-0 DePaul. I check back at the end of the game, same score. I look at Murphy who’s passing me. “Don’t even TALK to me, Bomis!” Once we found out what DePaul did we couldn’t stop giggling. I think Viola applauded.

2007

MSU managed to score huge on the fundraising front and had enough money to rent a bus for a rare fall Thursday night game at Grand Valley. Once we got there, it was clear they were on a mission, destroying us 16-0. Black eyes and bruises abounded. I remember the newer guys begging me to put up a fight with the refs or Soukup, but the truth of it was we were just plain getting stomped. At one point the crowd started laughing at Freeman who’d been laid out and wasn’t moving (eventually he rolled under the net/wall just behind the baseline) and no one appeared to be doing anything to help him. At that point I snapped and blindsided Dave with a rant that I’m not even sure made sense, but I was getting on him for everything and anything. Amazingly enough, we didn’t lose any of the people who were at that game.

State won in overtime vs. Delta later that month, with Gerald Hessell hitting Dave Halloran with about :40 to go in regulation. Later that year they’d have their first lost to DC in Saginaw, and again at the MDC that February, the last televised game MSU had. Oakland was kind enough to serve as sacrificial lambs in the dodgeball halftime show for the basketball doubleheader.

OSU put together the spring tournament, but for whatever reason that fell through in March and in 24 hours I was somehow able to cobble together enough court time to host in April. Marshall tackled a GVSU player at one point, MSU lost either 8-1 or 8-0 to GVSU, and GVSU finally beat Ohio State.

Sometimes known as “That Cult”

Story by: Ben Rusch

Most teams in the NCDA instantly recognize DePaul as the team who cares only about fun… and we wouldn’t have it any other way. The DePaul Dodgeball club was founded with the intention to allow students to cut loose from their stresses in life, whatever those may be. It initially attracted a wide variety of students from all different backgrounds, and this club diversity became a mainstay in the culture of the club.

Today, our club consists of everything from finance students to musicians and aspiring filmmakers to philosophy majors. Some of us our metalheads, some of us are hippies. There are girls, and there and guys, but we’re all dudes. Essentially, we come together despite our differences in lifestyle, career paths and interests because we all have on commonality; we love this freaking sport. You will never find a more cohesive group of people with more differences in personality, and that’s all because dodgeball has brought us together to hone our aggresive energy into something that makes us feel like kids again. We’re often referred to by lame, isolated DePaul students as “The Cult”, because of our ridiculous antics and overt hilarity. These are all huge reasons why we play the way that we do.

Instead of holding practices, we just play. Everyone is invited, and you’re numbered off into two games like it’s a pick-up game. Non-stop play for 2 hours, thats how we roll. And we have never forgotten the dodgeball, so in the spirit of gym classes all around the country, we attempt to be deviant and goofy as much as possible. Remember that time your gym teacher told you that you were being too aggresive and energetic during dodgeball play??? We burn that teacher in effigy at DePaul. We refuse to put a cap or filter on the fun we have… and this is the exact reason for the phenomenon of “Baby Shark”, trick shots like “The Awesome” and “The Shotgun” and our contradictory moniker “undefeated”. We will never be defeated because we will always have fun. Plain and simple.

Come join us on Monday and Thursday nights and experience the DePaul mantra for yourself. I promise, you’ll never wanna go back to running wind sprints or practicing strategy in your practices again ;-).

Blue Demons Focus on Fun

Story by: Ben Rusch

DePaul University, located in scenic Chicago, is a unique team within the NCDA. Whereas many teams focus on the competitive aspect of the sport, the Blue Demons tend to focus on the fun and ridiculous nature of a bunch of undergraduates playing a child’s game.

Several players take a keen interest on inventing complicated (and usually impractical) trick throws, including The Awesome, The Amazing, and The Mexican Flying Coffin Filler. The spectacular failures and the shocking successes of throws like these are equally entertaining.

In terms of tournament play, DePaul is in a rebuilding phase.

Last season’s National team sported two seniors and 14 players with no prior tournament experience. While numeric successes from Ohio State were limited, we were able to hang out with our good buddies at Michigan State, and our new friend “Chris” from GVSU.

DePaul-style dodgeball has significant differences in game play than most schools in an effort to increase the pace and intensity of the game.

For example, a catch does not eliminate the thrower (though one person from the catching team’s jail returns to the court), and boundary lines (excluding the neutral zone) tend to be fluid.

The basic core belief of Blue Demon Dodgeball is that it’s a game, and while no game should be taken too seriously, dodgeball should probably be taken even less seriously.

When it stops being fun, the reason for grown men and women to throw rubber kickballs at each other ceases to be.

The Odyssey of Ben Murphy

Story by: Andrew Allen

After four years of playing and being president of the Delta College Dodgeball team, Ben Murphy has left the team to pursue other interests.

What do those interests include? Playing for Saginaw Valley State University’s team.

“I had four great seasons at Delta College,” Murphy said.

“It was just time for me to move on. I graduated from Delta back in April of 2007. I stayed last year because my job required me to take classes there and to play dodgeball.”

While there Murphy saw his team reach three consecutive national final-four appearances and set a single season wins record in the NCDA in the 2008 season with 17 victories.

“We had a special group of players these last three seasons,” he said. “My time there will be something I will never forget.”

As for whether he is going to miss running a team that he founded back in 2004, Murphy isn’t going to deny it.

“There is no question that I’m going to miss being at Delta,” he said. “In fact I already do. But I am already having a lot of fun and learning to play with a bunch of great new teammates.”

There was also something that he wasn’t quite used to when he fist took the court for SVSU.

“I can just go to practice and focus on playing dodgeball and nothing else,” Murphy said. “I don’t have to worry about who isn’t playing well and who isn’t at practice. I can just focus on my own game and helping my teammates out on the court.”

On Sunday, Oct. 26 Murphy saw his first game action with the Cardinals against Michigan State University.

“It was weird being out there in a different uniform,” he said.

“But I was so excited to get my first kills and catches with a new team it was unreal. I just hope I can keep improving my game so I can stay on varsity for the rest of the season.”

Taking over for Murphy at Delta is David Halloran, who will be entering his fifth season with the team. Halloran served his previous four seasons as a captain and vice-president.

“The team is in good hands with Dave,” Murphy said.

“A big reason that Delta was so successful over the years is because of him. He understands the team concept and the hard work it takes to win dodgeball games more than anyone I’ve ever met.”

Halloran is excited as well to take over the club, and hopes to get the team over the hump and into the national championship game.

“Taking over the team has proven to be something more than just stepping into the shoes of the past president,” he said.

“It’s been challenging, yet very rewarding. The team looks great and I’m excited about the young talent that keeps coming through the door. I expect to be a national contender and I can only see third place as the last option.

You might be wondering on if Murphy is going to be rooting for his former team.

“I really think that SVSU is going to be a great team this season,” he said.

“But if Delta happens to win it all I hope they don’t mind me stealing one of their championship t-shirts.”

GVSU Repeats as NCDA Champions

by Kelvin Koster

The Lakers made it two in a row at this year’s NCDA Postseason Tournament in Columbus, defeating the Buckeyes of The Ohio State University 9-1 in the championship game. The win marks the second straight year GVSU has come back to Allendale proudly equipped with the NCDA championship trophy.

The win in the finals capped off another perfect season for the Lakers, giving them their 14th win against no losses for the year, and extending their winning streak to 25 matches.

Among other accomplishments for Grand Valley this season were first place finishes at the inaugural Kentucky Classic, held in Lexington last November, and at the now well-established Michigan Dodgeball Cup, held in East Lansing this February.

With the #1 ranking intact and a large target affixed to their backs, the Lakers now focus on the upcoming season. GVSU Captain Kelvin Koster is excited for what promises to be the most competitive year yet for the NCDA.

“I was very impressed with the strides some teams made last year. SVSU and BGSU are emerging as contenders for those top spots. As for Delta, those guys have scary arms and work together better than anyone. OSU is always a top team. If we’re going to win this thing again, we’re going to have to work harder than ever this year.”

GVSU is looking forward to another year full of NCDA action, but especially to the 2009 postseason tournament, which will be held on Grand Valley’s campus in Allendale, Michigan next April. GVSU junior Jimmy Stokes anticipates a historic weekend.

“It will be great to have our fans there with us, and I think other teams who haven’t experienced a game here yet will enjoy playing in front a crowd as large and excited as the one we expect to draw.”

With most of GVSU varsity squad returning this season, the team hopes and expects to find themselves in the championship game of next year’s tournament.

GVSU 2007/2008 News

Source: GVSU Student Web Server (most recent at the top)

GVSU Wins Back-To-Back National Championships

GVSU’s Varsity team won the 2008 NCDA National Championship, held in Ohio State over April 12-13. After shutting out DePaul and Bowling Green, GVSU nearly lost to Delta College, edging out a win (3-2) in overtime. GVSU went on to shut out Wisconsin-Platteville and Saginaw Valley and beat Ohio State 9-1 in the final match.

GVSU Rolls Over MSU

Grand Valley State’s Varsity and JV teams both edged out Michigan State’s Varsity and JV teams for a win on March 15. GVSU’s Varsity won 11-0, but nearly gave up a point in the final 5 minutes of the match. JV won 5-2. This extends Grand Valley’s record to 8-0.

Doctor Dodgeball

The Doctor Dodgeball event is on the morning of Friday, March 14 in Holland. Email Alex Soukup if you are interested in participating.

GVSU Wins Michigan Dodgeball Cup

Grand Valley’s Varsity team won the 2008 Michigan Dodgeball Cup on February 3rd, beating Saginaw Valley (9-0), Central Michigan (13-0), and Delta (6-0) to bring the cup home for the third straight year.

Winter Semester Dues

Dues for the winter semester are $20. In order to be considered for the Michigan Dodgeball Cup (February 3) roster, you must have paid by Monday, January 14.

Jerseys

Jerseys will be available to order Tuesday November 13th at 8pm (before practice) and Thursday, November 15 at 9pm. On Thursday we will be having a meeting in Mackinac 1011 to select numbers at 9pm. One jersey and one pair of shorts is $45. One pair of shoes is $45 as well. After this point, you must have a jersey and shorts to be considered for a roster.

Kentucky Classic

Grand Valley brought home both first and second place (Varsity and JV) in the Kentucky Classic Tournament on November 10th. Varsity beat Western Kentucky, Marshall, and Kentucky with a combined score of 36-0. JV lost to Kentucky, but beat Saginaw Valley and Marshall to come in 2nd (behind GVSU Varsity).

Kentucky Invitational

GVSU’s next matches will be at the Kentucky Invitational on November 10th. Other expected teams for the tournament will be Saginaw Valley, Kentucky, West Kentucky, and Marshall. Both GVSU Varsity and GVSU JV will be playing.

Season Opener

In their season opener against Saginaw Valley State, both GVSU Varsity and Junior Varsity pulled out wins. Varsity shut out their opponents 11-0, while JV won with a resounding 8-1.

Dues

Dues are due Sunday September 16 and will be $20 per semester. Dues must be paid to participate in closed practices. Payment of dues awards one participation in closed practices, one grey dodgeball shirt and one athletic bag.

Open Practices

Interested in joining GVSU Dodgeball? Open practices will be held on Thursdays in the Fieldhouse Arena from 9-11PM.