BOTM: January 2019 (Alumni Edition)

Kyle FitzPatrick playing for the Columbus Gamecocks

During the month of January, the NCDA Executive Board likes to honor an alumni that continues to stay relevant not just in the dodgeball community as a whole, but one that continuously makes an effort to do what they can to grow the sport of dodgeball on multiple levels. As the former Captain of Kent State, and current member of the Columbus Gamecocks, we have asked Kyle FitzPatrick to share some words with us about his journey through dodgeball over the past decade. Please follow along as President Felix Perrone and Director Jacob Leski (current teammates of Kyle’s) ask the ever-loving zookeeper about his passion for dodgeball, and why it still plays a major part in his life to this day… Continue reading “BOTM: January 2019 (Alumni Edition)”

League Expansion and Retention: Fall Edition (18-19)

INDIANAPOLIS – Office of the Director of League Expansion & Retention: With Colleges and Universities already heading back to school this weekend (some went back this past weekend), most if not all of our upcoming teams are hinging on having success at their school’s respective fall recruitment fairs. Many of our current member teams depend on this success as well. Before clubs start competing in late September, we will go into detail who our prospective clubs are, and how soon we see them competing this season. As an update in itself, Brett Hadwin (CMU alum) and Kyle Dattelbaum (UNG alum) have taken on the role as my assistants for this season, and have already started much of the leg work required to get us off on the right track for the 2018-19 season. Continue reading “League Expansion and Retention: Fall Edition (18-19)”

My Dodgeball Story: Cody Putnam (SVSU)

For our final My Dodgeball Story of the summer, we selected Mr. Putnam to send us off. Cody was known for his loud demeanor on/off the court, and for his immense leadership at SVSU over the course of his career. He tied up his laces this past Spring, and we will surely miss his antics, and overall true character for years to come…

First thing’s first, I’m no Kevin Bailey when it comes to my writing ability. I probably won’t have a chronological order to any of this, a lot of my dodgeball career is a fast paced blur, and to be completely honest, I don’t remember when exactly everything happened, but I’ll do my best. Zigmas, you can fact check anything you want, if necessary. Read at your own risk!

So here goes nothing,  My Dodgeball Story Continue reading “My Dodgeball Story: Cody Putnam (SVSU)”

My Dodgeball Story: Kyle Shaw (Miami(OH))

To be honest, when Leski asked me if I was interested in writing a post for this, I was pretty surprised he had thought me relevant enough to write about my experience in the NCDA. I love this league, I love dodgeball, and I’m humbled to share with everyone my time playing for the Redhawks. It’s definitely a different route than most have taken throughout their playing careers, so hopefully it’s a semi-entertaining read… Continue reading “My Dodgeball Story: Kyle Shaw (Miami(OH))”

My Dodgeball Story: Jason Hallman (Kent State)

Continuing the My Dodgeball Story for our 3rd story of the summer, and 1st of July comes from Kent State University’s very own Jason Hallman, who played at Kent State from 2009-12, is in his 1st season with the Cleveland Has-Beens, and is a prominent referee in the NCDA. Take it away Jason… Continue reading “My Dodgeball Story: Jason Hallman (Kent State)”

My Dodgeball Story: Paul Hillebrand (GVSU)

So continues our series chronicling the stories of former NCDA players. Today we have Paul Hillebrand of Grand Valley State University telling his story. Paul played at Grand Valley State University from 2006-09, and 2013-15, a total of six seasons in the NCDA, all of which resulted in National Championships. Please take some time to read this highly detailed account of Paul’s dodgeball career prior to going to college, his time in the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association, and how he has stayed involved in dodgeball after college.

PRE-NCDA

I started playing organized dodgeball in 2004 as a junior in High School.  My friend formed a team to play in a foam dodgeball league at an indoor soccer facility called High Velocity Sports in Canton, Michigan near where I grew up. We gave ourselves the hilariously original name of “Ball Busters”, had pink uniform shirts made, and beat down a bunch of much older teams to win the league championship. I still remember the incredible joy I felt playing competitive dodgeball for the first time. I was hooked and continued playing in the league basically year round until finishing high school in 2006. While my teammates (like most normal people) were mostly done with dodgeball after graduating, I wanted more. I found out that Grand Valley State had a dodgeball club and I am not embarrassed one bit to admit that it was a significant factor in my decision to attend college there. Continue reading “My Dodgeball Story: Paul Hillebrand (GVSU)”

My Dodgeball Story: Leslie Ellison (Kent State)

Almost two years ago, President Felix Perrone wrote an article called My Dodgeball Story: Felix Perrone and inspired many to tell their story. I encourage all of you reading this to give it a read, barring that you are taking the time to read this alone. On a more contradictory note, many failed to write their stories, which is why I am writing this now. There are far to many NCDA alumni with amazing stories to tell of their time not only in the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association, but in their experiences off the court, and their time in other leagues outside of the college level. With the off-season bringing little to write about, Kevin Bailey and myself thought it’d be a great idea to share some amazing stories with the Dodgeball community. The goal is to release 3-4 stories a month until the season starts back up in August/September. If any of you are interested in telling your story please either contact us through Facebook, or email us at Ncdadodgeball@gmail.com.

To re-continue this saga, I could not think of a better person than Kent State’s very own Leslie Ellison. Starting her playing career at Kent State in 2008, Leslie played all 4 years until 2012. She is well known as an individual who does not cater to nonsense, but loves a good laugh, and enjoys a good challenge on/off the court. Leslie still plays to this day, and is a reckoning force for the encouragement of women to play dodgeball in the NCDA and beyond.

“The Floor” is yours Leslie: Continue reading “My Dodgeball Story: Leslie Ellison (Kent State)”

BOTM: 2017 December

December may seem like it was a year ago, but the NCDA’s Baller of the Month for December is JMU’s Doug Schilling. This award is long over due for Doug, who has been a key player for them since the day he stepped on the court his freshman year. Take a gander at my conversation with this year’s potential MVP: Continue reading “BOTM: 2017 December”

NCDA 2017-18 Recruitment Update

Click to check out our interactive Google Map.

 

The start of the 2017-18 season begins this weekend at Michigan State. While no new programs will be playing this weekend, we have quite a bunch of up-and-coming schools we’d like to share with you.  There are more than those that are listed below, but are much further away from being approved in the near future (primarily on the West Coast). The following schools are in different stages of becoming a member team of the NCDA, however they each have one thing in common, they want to be playing in the NCDA this season. Continue reading “NCDA 2017-18 Recruitment Update”

Final Power Rankings for the 2016-17 Season

Disclaimer: These rankings have zero impact on seeding for the National Tournament or actual ranking. They provide insight into where teams are currently performing during a given part of the season.

Here it is. The final power rankings of the season. Hope you all enjoy it on your ride down to Lexington and get a kick out of it as much as I did writing it. I tried to insert as many “Dodgeball” quotes as I could, comment how many you think you found. First to guess it correctly gets “Two expired movie passes and a free body massage from Peter LaFleur.” But for real, see how many you can find.

For those easily offended, please do not read any further…

Continue reading “Final Power Rankings for the 2016-17 Season”

Rule Proposal: Shot Clock Officials

Rule Proposal by Ben Tubergen

Rule proposal: Shot clock officials are responsible for distinguishing a legitimate throw vs. a non legitimate throw.

My reasoning for this is that there have been multiple occasions this year where the shot clock official stops his/her count thinking it was a legitimate throw, then realizes the head ref thought it wasn’t, and then begins to pick up their count again causing confusion for the throwing team. Typically resulting in balls over.

I hope that wasn’t too wordy. But this is the scenario. Team A’s shot clock is at 12, team A makes a throw attempt that the shot clock counter deems legitimate, he/she stops counting. Team A continues play as if their shot clock has been reset. However the shot clock official then realizes the head ref deemed the throw illegitimate. The shot clock official then begins to either pick up their count from the time of Team A’s throw (at 13) or skips ahead to compensate for the time that elapsed (14 or 15). Leaving little to no time for Team A to react. In numerous occasions this scenario causes confusion for team A resulting in a balls over, because they’re listening to the count not watching the head refs signaling.

MDC Preview: What Each Team Can Gain and Lose

To say this weekend is big is an understatement. There is no weekend other than Nationals that Michigan teams look forward to more than the Michigan Dodgeball Cup (MDC). Hearts are broken, dreams are made. This is a weekend full of yelling, regrets and obviously, dodging. And we wouldn’t have it any other way. Continue reading “MDC Preview: What Each Team Can Gain and Lose”

Power Rankings Poll: Groundhog’s Day Edition

Disclaimer: These rankings have zero impact on seeding for the National Tournament or actual ranking. They provide insight into where teams are currently performing during a given part of the season.

Continue reading “Power Rankings Poll: Groundhog’s Day Edition”

Director of League Expansion and Retention: Winter Update

The first half of the 2016-17 season is complete. We started the season with 23 active teams in the NCDA and now have 29 with plenty more waiting to get some action in the second half of the season. A total of 119 games were played last semester. That set a new record for the amount of matches played in the first half of the season. One can only predict that this record will continue to be broken for many years to come. This is thanks to the hard work of not just the Executive Board, but the active members of this league who have done an extraordinary job of getting the word out about this great sport. Below is an update on how the newly established member teams are doing this season and how close other prospective teams are to playing in the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association this season.
Continue reading “Director of League Expansion and Retention: Winter Update”