Nationals 2016 was just over a week ago, but that doesn’t stop the content team from producing some articles. This will be the first in a series of Way-Too-Early Top 15 rankings for next season. Below is my personal opinion on who the tops teams will be heading into next year. If you are interested in making a top 15 list of your own, feel free to contact any member of the content team and we will make it happen. If you disagree with my list I expect to see your own top 15 written up! Continue reading “Way-Too-Early Preseason Top 15”
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It is that time of year again. The season ended this past weekend, and now we need to begin the voting for our All-American Team. The process is pretty simple. Each team is required to send in a list of their top 15 players in the country listed preferential order 1 through 15. Continue reading “All-American Voting”
It was April 12, 2015, and inside the Preston Center at Western Kentucky University, it had never been louder. A building full of collegiate dodgeball players looked on in confusion trying to figure out why there was so much yelling and screaming going on. As it turns out, Towson University’s dodgeball team was responsible for this ruckus, as they were celebrating an upset victory over Ohio State University in the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association’s final tournament. This moment in time will not soon be forgotten by anyone in attendance, as it will go down as one of the most memorable upsets in NCDA Nationals history.
Rewind the clock just a few years and the thought of Towson making it to the NCDA’s “Elite Eight” was absolutely absurd. Truth is, the dodgeball club that formed at Towson University never seemed destined for success, but thanks to the incredible commitment of the club’s leaders, the Tigers are finally making noise in the NCDA. A program that limped its way through the larger part of their first four seasons as an NCDA team, Towson Dodgeball is no longer an afterthought in the college dodgeball universe.
It’s pretty simple: What is the biggest issue with the current NCDA ruleset? Most people would argue it is often too slow paced, or that there are not enough points scored each game. People often complain about stall-ball, and I concur that this is a major concern for our league.
There have been many proposed rule changes that are intended to combat this issue, attempting to make games faster and more exciting. Sure, there are countless ways to go about fixing the slow-paced style that plagues our league right now, but in my opinion, no rule change will be as beneficial as this one. The throw line (attack line) needs to decrease from 30 ft. to 25 ft. in the rulebook. Continue reading “Proposed Rule Change: Throw Line Distance”
A long time ago after the annual Chick-fil-A dodgeball tournament in Richmond, VA, my best friend Micheal Tse and I were walking back to my apartment talking about dodgeball and the possibility of playing after our college days were done. This took place in October 2011, several months after the historical Final Four run by VCU in the NCAA tournament. The conversation started off very casually and jokingly with talks of playing semi-professionally along the East Coast with the potential of winning cash prizes or free food. Because who doesn’t like free food after a tournament? Yet, small talk created curiosity in me, and I stumbled across a hidden secret which has been around since 2004, the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association (NCDA).
In December 2011 as a Christmas present to myself, I completed all of the paperwork that was necessary to have the Dodgeball Club at VCU as an official organization. Little did I know my life would never be the same again. At the time, dodgeball at VCU was shrinking in size every single year. It started out strong with at least 100 people playing medic dodgeball every Friday from 2-4:30 p.m. in my freshman year to only 20 people playing medic dodgeball three times a week in my junior year. Back then, the purpose of the club was to create some stability with the perception of the sport around VCU, so that we would have some gym time every week. For anyone who has ever attended VCU, you know that dodgeball time was cut short on a weekly basis due to soccer.
The National Collegiate Dodgeball Association’s 2016 Executive of the Year is awarded to Caleb Arnold from Ohio University. The captain for first-year NCDA member team Ohio, Caleb demonstrated excellent leadership, scheduling his team 25 games. This honor is bestowed upon Caleb after the NCDA Executive Board vote (also nominated for this award was Erik Zander, the captain for Wisconsin Platteville).
I was able to ask a few questions of the league’s Executive of the Year, and I learned a lot about Caleb and his team. After reading through Caleb’s responses, I anticipate everyone else will have as much respect as I do for the President, Captain, and Founder of Ohio University Dodgeball:
Caleb Arnold – Executive of the Year
Kevin Bailey – What were the reasons for you starting up a team at Ohio, and what were the main struggles that you encountered during this process?
Caleb Arnold – First of all, thank you and the rest of the league for giving me this opportunity to discuss a little about my team. Anyways, I have always had a passion for dodgeball. Continue reading “Executive of the Year: Caleb Arnold (Ohio)”
Todd Given Jr. and Towson had a great showing at MVEC. Photo Credit: Glen Brown
This past weekend, Towson University hosted the biggest event in program history when six teams gathered on Saturday, March 26th for the Michigan Versus the East Coast Tournament. At this dodgeball tournament were the usual East Coast mainstays: James Madison, Maryland, Virginia Commonwealth, and Towson of course. Along with these familiar foes, TU also was able to convince #1 Grand Valley State and #3 Michigan State to make the trek to the Baltimore area for a late season showdown.
This year’s College Dodgeball All Star Game will be a bit different than in years past. In 2016, the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association has paired with Savage Apparel Co. for the event. The team uniforms for this match will be provided by this apparel brand at a discounted price. Dry-fit customization uniforms is a great new addition to one of the NCDA’s most recognizable National Tournament traditions: The All Star Game.
This year’s game will feature two players from each NCDA team, with a draft taking place before Nationals weekend. Dylan Fettig and Mike McNicholas will be the honorary captains for one side, while Felix Perrone and Zigmas Maloni will captain the other squad. These four executive board members will rotate picks during the 2016 All Star Draft as they pick their roster for the game.
Listed below are the representatives from each school for the 2016 All Star Game Presented by Savage:
*Let us know in the comment section who your top picks would be if you were an All Star Game team captain!
Thanks to a suggestion from WKU’s Nick Johnson, the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association’s Content Team has compiled a top-15 power rankings for the league. Each member of the content team submitted their personal power rankings and below we have the averaged out list. So, without further-ado, here are the current NCDA Power Rankings: Continue reading “NCDA Power Rankings (3/24/16)”
By: Captains of the Platteville Dodgeball Club (Matt Bautch & Erik Zander)
The Platteville Dodgeball Club is writing this article to bring up topics that we feel should be talked about in the league. We discuss various topics that we have seen over the years that we feel are keeping the league from being really competitive. In this writing if you feel we we’re calling out your team we are sorry and didn’t mean to. After you read this we would love to hear on the captains’ page if you agree or disagree as well as any other things you feel that we may have missed. Hopefully, this brings about some great discussion and will bring some changes for next year. Continue reading “The Way We See It”
Sean Smith and the Towson Tigers will host many of the top teams in the country on March 26th in the first ever “MVEC” tournament.
In less than a month Towson will play host to one of the most anticipated East Coast tournaments in NCDA history. The first ever MVEC (Michigan Versus the East Coast) will take place at Towson University on Saturday, March 26th. This tournament will come only a few weeks prior to Nationals, and it should be very telling of where teams stand leading up to the season’s final event. Below I have listed the attending teams, a few storylines to follow, and the recently released tournament schedule. Take a look:
Teams in attendance at MVEC:
#1 Grand Valley State
#3 Michigan State
#5 James Madison
#8 Towson
#11 Maryland
#17 Virginia Commonwealth
