NT Daily: Mean Green Dodgeball

PHOTO STORY: DODGE, DUCK, DIP, DIVE AND DODGE

From the North Texas Daily by Whitney Rogers – Contributing Writer

For the Mean Green Dodgeball Club, Friday nights consist of colorful rubber balls flying in all directions and hitting members square in the stomach while blasting themed music in the background. 

Around 50-70 students meet every Friday from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Bahnsen Gym for a night of dodgeball with their teammates and students who show up just to play.

“We’re really a melting pot,” club president and economics junior Austin Milner said. “We have a wide variety of people from athletes to computer science nerds.”

Milner and his roommate started a dodgeball club at their high school in Rockwall and brought the phenomenon to UNT in the spring of 2012.

“We started out small, but had crazy super rapid growth,” Milner said. “Everybody loves dodgeball.”

The club starts the night out by picking captains who then split up and pick team members one by one. Once teams are chosen, they crank up the music and play as many games as time allows.

“It’s just 40 guys and girls throwing balls at each other all night,” member and criminal justice junior Chris Nolan said.

The Mean Green Dodgeball Club hopes to compete at nationals at the University of Kentucky in April.

“You don’t really have to be competitive to compete,” said Zigmas Maloni, the general coordinator for the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association.

Competing at nationals would give the Mean Green Dodgeball Club a chance to compete against schools they normally would not get to play against due to distance and cost.

“The crowd really gets into the game at nationals, with over 100 people watching one dodgeball game for an hour,” Maloni said.

Although the school provides the club with some funding, enough to cover the gym rental each semester, every member who wants to compete at nationals will have to pay for travel and expenses themselves.

“More funding would help a lot with competitions,” Nolan said. “And we could represent the school in a really fun sport.”

Dodgeballs are lined up in the middle of the court ready for the Mean Green Dodgeball Club to start practice. The club meets every Friday at seven in the Bahnsen gym. Photo by Whitney Rogers/Intern

The Mean Green Dodgeball Club races to the half court line to get a dodgeball at the first game during practice Friday night January 25. Photo by Whitney Rogers/Intern

 

Members of the Mean Green Dodgeball Club go one on one. The club hopes to compete at nationals this year in Kentucky. Photo by Whitney Rogers

 

Austin Milner, president of the Mean Green Dodgeball Club anticipates his next move as his opponents draw near. Photo by Whitney Rogers/Intern

Mean Green Dodgeball Club president Austin Milner gets a hit in at dodgeball practice Friday night January 25. Milner and his roommate started the club a year ago and have seen rapid growth since. Whitney Roger/Intern

Author: Zigmister

DePaul Dodgeball #68 & NCDA Director of Officiating

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.