2016 Kentucky Invitational

LEXINGTON – Seaton: Today’s results in the Kentucky Invitational…
UK def DePaul 4-0
OSU def WKU 5-0
UK def Kent 3-1
OSU def DePaul 7-0
OSU def Kent 3-0
WKU def DePaul 3-0
OSU def UK 3-2
WKU def Kent 2-1
WKU def UK 3-1
Kent def DePaul 3-0

Great statistics were recorded courtesy of UK and the rest of the Officiating staff. For that I have thanks. They will be transcribed over the next week.

Letter to the Officials and Staff

Good people,

Thank you for registering! Nationals 2015 is hosted by Western Kentucky University and WKU Dodgeball. It will be fun. The Staff and Alumni are an integral part of the success of this organization. We thank you in advance for this service.

Continue reading “Letter to the Officials and Staff”

Kentucky Invitational Preview

10422055_10205887517656828_585012614899180215_nThis weekend will feature two very interesting NCDA regular season tournaments.  One will be played at DePaul University (Chicago Dodgeball Open) featuring two of the top teams in Michigan (Grand Valley State & Central Michigan) along with arguably the top two teams from the Illinois region (Wisconsin Platteville & DePaul).

The other tournament played over the weekend might be even more interesting than the CDO.  On January 31, the University of Kentucky will play host to in state rival Western Kentucky, the top three Ohio teams: Ohio State, Kent State, and Bowling Green State, as well as an undefeated James Madison squad from the East Coast.

Here are a few storylines to follow in this mid-season showdown as UK. Continue reading “Kentucky Invitational Preview”

Rivalry Renewed: WKU vs. UK

rivalry renewedOnly one NCDA match was played this weekend, and it was a great one.  Western Kentucky played host to in-state rival Kentucky on Saturday.  This was the second meeting between the two schools this season, with Kentucky taking the first meeting 3-0 in the opening match of the 2014-15 NCDA regular season. Continue reading “Rivalry Renewed: WKU vs. UK”

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.

Why Nationals 2011 Will Rock

Story by: Josh Raymer & Felix Perrone

Paid, semi-professional referees. WKU is going to hire eight officials to referee both days of the tournament. To get them prepared, they’ll ref WKU’s practices the month leading up to Nationals. Having paid refs will help avoid scheduling conflicts and keep overwhelmed player refs from being ignored during big games. It also leaves teams to enjoy their free time between games.

A better lunch option on Saturday. As opposed to pizza, each team member will be given a pass to Fresh Food, our school’s buffet-style cafeteria. About a three minute walk from the recreation center, teams can enjoy a hearty lunch during their scheduled break.

Stringent enforcement of the rules. Commissioner Bomis has made it clear that the following rules will not be ignored next April:

10 player rule – come with less than 10 players and you’ll be turned away at the door.

Student IDs– players must present a valid ID before playing. This prevents students from other schools and alumni from playing on teams where they don’t belong.

20 player cap– 5 bench players is all you get. JV teams will get action before Nationals.

A new seeding formula. Bomis has proposed this on the forum and it’s still being tweaked, but there will be a new way for determining Saturday’s pools that will help us avoid what happened with this year’s tournament, which featured some loaded and not-so-loaded pools. This formula will probably take into account season performance AND performance on Saturday to give us the most fair and accurate seedings for Sunday’s games.

All-Star game and skills challenges. We want to start Saturday off with a bang by finding out who has the league’s best hands and its fastest arm with help from the ROB 9000 and a radar gun. Winners will get actual awards and be recognized on the website. The All-Star game will come after the skills challenge. Preliminary teams are Michigan vs. Everyone Else. Nobody knows a team’s best players better than its own members, so each player will nominate either 2 players (for team Everyone Else) or 4 (for Team Michigan) from their own team to determine the makeup of each squad. The two players from each team with the most votes get selected as All-Stars. And yes, players can vote for themselves. Both All-Star squads will even get their own uniforms, which will also serve as the souvenirs for All-Star players. The winning team also gets actual awards and recognition on the website.

Comprehensive media coverage. We made a step in the right direction with live podcasts from this year’s tournament, but we’re going to up the ante for 2011. What does this mean? Well, plan on footage from EVERY game that is played on both days. That’s right, every single one. On top of that, we’ll have two announcers per court who will call the action from each game. That recording won’t go up as a podcast, but rather as voiceover for the game footage, essentially providing the games + commentary that every major sports league enjoys. A separate Nationals YouTube account will be set up so players can re-watch games at their leisure. Finally, each media duo will be tweeting updates throughout the day.

Full color program for every player. During the course of the season, Jazzy will collect team photos, rosters and blurbs for each team. He’ll compile then into a beautifully designed, full color program to be handed out at Nationals.

Cheaper cost per team. Right now, the preliminary cost looks to be about $175 per team. That includes referee, food, shirt and All-Star game costs.

Nice facilities. Granted, BGSU’s Perry Fieldhouse is the ideal place for a dodgeball tournament. While we can’t match that, WKU’s recreation center just underwent a $50 million renovation and is well-equipped to handle the number of teams that show up in Bowling Green next April. We’ll have four courts dedicated to game action and (hopefully) a large, multi-purpose room where players can lounge in between games.

The chance to play a championship game on the main court in WKU’s basketball arena. Not since Nationals at GVSU have teams had this opportunity, and if things go according to plan, the two teams left standing at the end of Sunday will square off on the most revered court in south central Kentucky. Now we just need to work on filling that place to capacity!

AJP Live: Nationals 2010 – WKU v DePaul

Average Joes' Podcast LogoRecorded Live from Nationals ’10

Warning: for mature listening audiences only! 

Hungover and embracing the comical nature of WKU vs. DePaul, Newton teams up with his podcast co-host to provide commentary to all the debauchery happening on the court.

Play