Author Archives: hiller87

About hiller87

Former Captain of the MSU Club Dodgeball Team, former NCDA Chief of Content.

10 Years of Dodgeball: 2009-2010

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In Ian Childs’ first year as head captain of the Spartans, Michigan State would make it’s biggest leap yet into the dodgeball elite. Helped by assistant captains Cameron Massimino and Joe Marotta, and aided by an amazing recruiting class, the Spartans would make it to the Final Four at Nationals, beat Saginaw Valley at the Michigan Dodgeball Cup, and prove to be a great team. This may be the deepest, best team in the history of Spartan dodgeball, with seniors like Jon Rengering, Jarrett Smith, Andrea Mason, and Joe Marotta, and the best recruiting class yet with rookies like Andy Malnor, Eric Paul, Alex Acton, Zach Bauer, and Kevin Miller. That recruiting class would bring four future All-Stars, three future captains, and help usher the Spartans into a new age.

With great camaraderie, good teamwork, and skillful players, the Spartans became one of the most dangerous teams to play in the league. Ian Childs’ strategies were great, and the Spartans would go on to beat teams they were supposed to beat, upset some teams like Saginaw, and finally were able to hang around with Grand Valley.

Michigan State had new uniforms for the 2009-2010 season, once again made by Patagonia. They were grey, and similar to the previous season’s uniforms.

The Spartans began the season with a scrimmage against CMU, who they had two devastating defeats against the past season, and then followed it up with two tournaments in November- at Bowling Green and hosting the first MSU Invite in years. They would be successful in both tournaments, despite losing to SVSU and GVSU again, and then they traveled to the Cardinal Gym for a battle with SVSU. The Cards squeaked out a victory there, but despite the loss the Spartans felt confident about how they played. With a trip to OSU up next, the State began to look like a title contender thanks to their new pieces they added via recruiting and the growth of some of their veteran players. At the OSU Invite, Michigan State would face GVSU and Miami (OH) and go 1-1, losing to the Lakers but beating the Redhawks. This left them with two tournaments for the rest of the season: the 2010 Michigan Dodgeball Cup in East Lansing, and Nationals 2010 at Bowling Green. While the Spartans would lose to CMU 3-2 again at the MDC, they did knock off the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals for the first time in program history, which is one of the biggest wins in school history. At Nationals 2010 the Spartans would be put into pool play with GVSU, Western Kentucky, and Depaul. They went 2-1, losing to GVSU but beating WKU and Depaul handily, and that would set them up for at match against Western Illinois the next day. The Spartans, who had a bye in the first round, handed the Leathernecks a defeat in the first round of the tournament, which was the first of many matches the two teams have played over the past three seasons, and then would face CMU in the Final Four. State would lose by one to the Chips, but once again it was a tough match for both sides. This season really established MSU as an elite program in the modern NCDA.

2009-2010 Captain Ian Childs said of the team “2009-2010 was a huge turn around for us. We went from an under-achieving team to making the Final 4 at Nationals. Although it wasn’t the most talented team MSU has ever had, it was probably the most in sync our team has ever been on the court. That season paved the way for 2010-2011 which was probably the best season out team has had.”

10 Years of Dodgeball: 2008-2009

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The Spartans played a big schedule in captain Zach Parten’s final season, playing traditional rivals such as Grand Valley, Saginaw Valley, and up-comer Central Michigan, but the season also featured a trip to Kentucky and to Bowling Green. The Spartans played 14 regular season games, which was tied for most in the country with SVSU. They started the season off with two disappointing road losses (6-3 to SVSU and 12-0 to GVSU) but their next tournament was the Kentucky Classic, in which the Spartans would go 3-0 defeating Kentucky, Western Kentucky, and Louisville. Following that, the Spartans would travel to Delta College, a traditional powerhouse team who would be playing their last season in the league, and they lost 6-0. Next for the Spartans was the 2009 Michigan Dodgeball Cup, a 5 team round robin tournament featuring MSU, GVSU, SVSU, CMU, and Delta. Michigan State showed major improvement in the MDC, despite the fact that they only had one win. The Spartans knocked off Delta College 3-1, only lost 7-0 against a GVSU team who is the considered to be greatest team in NCDA history, hung around against SVSU (a 4-2 loss), and suffered what would be the first of many devastating defeats against rival CMU. Twenty days later Michigan State would travel to Bowling Green for a round robin against Ohio schools, including a 4-0 loss to Big Ten rival Ohio State, a 1-1 draw against Kent State, and a tough 3-2 win against BGSU. This led the Spartans into Nationals 2009 at GVSU. Both the Varsity and Junior Varsity teams would compete at Nationals, and both teams would do well.

The Spartans added a few key pieces for the 2008-2009 season, including the hardest thrower for the team in Andrew Koczara, future captain Sam Hiller, speedster Ray Matiyow, and three year grip throwers Kyle Schubel and Erik Butterfield. It would also be the last season for Jason Arens, one of the hardest throwers in team history.

The captains for 2008-2009 were senior Zach Parten, junior Joe Marotta, and sophomore Cameron Massimino, but sophomore Ian Childs was also a captain after an injury to Zach Parten.

The Spartans had two different uniforms this season- a white one and a black one. This helped for when they were playing schools such as GVSU in all black and WKU in all white.

Dominique Carruthers had this to say about the team, “I would never want to be on any other team than the MSU team. Our team has the most diverse styles in the league I personally feel. To me it never matters if we win or lose, but more so how we fought the battle.” The Spartans fought some battles in the 2008-2009 season, and won many of them.

Michigan State Dodgeball- Not Just For Guys

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The Michigan State Club Dodgeball Team has always been a co-ed team, and there have been some great female players in the history of the team. State prides itself on having women on the team, and they have had some very skilled female players. Players like Andrea Mason, who had an arm stronger than some of the male players on the team, Olivia Ghislain, an excellent catcher, Brittany Clifton, who could grip throw, and Nicole Halbeisen, an extremely sneaky player. The women of the team are also some of the most dedicated players on the team, with players like Cote Witt, Halbeisen and Ghislain rarely missing practices. Many of the women get involved by going with their friends to practices, and then sticking around because they love it so much, like Andrea Mason. Mason says “I went and instantly fell in love with the sport. I kept coming back and didn’t stop for 5 years.” Olivia Ghislain and Nicole Halbeisen were roommates their freshman year, and Nicole heard about it at Sparticipation, a big recruiting fair on MSU’s campus, so they decided to check it out and have been on the team ever since.

There are some advantages and disadvantages to being a Lady Dodgeballer though, as Mason says, “The biggest advantage was that other teams always underestimated me making it much easier to to catch them off guard and get them out via a throw or catch.” However, she also says that “The biggest disadvantage was simply physical differences between men and women. It’d be physically impossible for me to throw 80+ mph like some guys can, but there are ways around that like being smart with your throws and sneaky.” Olivia Ghislain says that that the “two advantages [she] can think of are also disadvantages, so it’s kind of a double edged sword, one advantage is that guys don’t throw at you as much, and the other one is that guys tend to underestimate you.”

The Spartan Women Dodgeballers also liked playing with them men. “Guys are a ton of fun to be around, I always have a blast at practices, tournaments, and just hanging out with the boys.” Mason says. Ghislain adds “I like it, but then again it’s what I did growing up. I always competed against the guys in gym, as opposed to being on the girls’ teams.” However, Mason also says that there was a downside to playing with guys, because she would get “frustrated with new members of the team and members of other teams for underestimating me.”

The Michigan State Club Dodgeball Team tends to draw in plenty of women dodgeballers in the first few weeks of practice, but usually only a few stick around. Ghislain explains why she thinks that is, saying “I don’t think some of the girls stick around because it’s intimidating at first. At least I can say I was intimidated at first. I also don’t think dodgeball is for every girl, so personal preference has a lot to do with it as well.” Ghislain says that they should stick around though, because “It really is a great way to meet people and it’s a lot of fun.”

If you’re a woman who’s interested in playing dodgeball for Michigan State, the girls collectively say do it. Ghislain says that “I don’t really have a favorite part of dodgeball, I just like it. But I do really enjoy the people. I think we have a pretty good mix of personalities, making it always interesting.” “It was such an awesome experience that led to so many great friendships so give it a try!” says Mason, who adds “joining the team is a great decision that I have not ever regretted. Great experience, great memories.”

2012-2013 Season Preview

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The Spartans head into their 10th season as a club as one of the favorites for the NCDA National Championship, after making it to at least the quarterfinals of the last four National Tournaments. Part of this is due to the fact that the Spartans only lose five players from the Nationals 2012 roster, part of this is due to the fact that teams like Central Michigan and Saginaw Valley are projected to be losing some key players, but this year will be one of the best chances State has ever had of hoisting the trophy come April. With several key players coming back, the Spartans look to be a tough out this year. They lost some key members of the team, including arguably one of the best players in the history of the team in Andy Malnor, graduating senior Ray Matiyow, 6th year seniors Dominique Carruthers and J’mel Johnson, and graduate student Jason Durocher. This means that the Spartans will have to get a good recruiting class of young students to fill the void left by these five players. Despite having a new President and Vice President, State will likely not miss a beat when it comes to recruiting as Captain Sam Hiller, former Captain Ian Childs, and former President and Vice President Kevin Miller and Zach Bauer are all still with the program.

The Spartans have already added some matches to their schedule this year, apart from the Michigan Dodgeball Cup in February and Nationals 2013 at Kentucky in April. This October, State will travel to Columbus, OH, for the first time in three seasons to play a round robin tournament against some elite teams. At that tournament will be Ohio State, Kent State, Saginaw Valley, and Kentucky, all of which are dangerous teams, which will be a good barometer as to how good these Spartans can be. Michigan State is also likely to play a round robin at Saginaw Valley in the fall, to go along with the 2012 MSU Invite in East Lansing. In the Spring Semester, Michigan State is looking to go to Depaul for the 2013 Chicago Dodgeball Open, and also to host the 2013 Michigan Dodgeball Cup. Then they will pack their bags for Lexington, KY, to do battle in the 2013 National Tournament.

The key to the Spartans becoming a National Champion is for the whole team to improve. Players like Riley Robson, Josh Brawley, and Andy Lieblich need to have their “sophomore leaps” and improve in their second season with the club. Even some veteran players, like Sam Hiller and Ian Childs, can improve on their throwing or catching abilities, and even the best all around players on the roster like Eric Paul and Alex Acton can work on their decision making. With the losses of the five graduating players hurting State, they need to add in key pieces from recruiting but they also need to build from within. If everyone on the team can improve just a little bit, then this could be a very dangerous squad come April.

Some of the major Spartans coming back include former All-Stars Alex Acton, Ian Childs, Sam Hiller, Andrew Koczara, Kevin Miller, and Eric Paul, along with potential future All-Stars like Zach Bauer, Mike Van Ermen, Chris Kramer, and Andy Lieblich. But keep an eye out too for a few under the radar guys, like Charlie Wilshire, Riley Robson, Josh Brawley, and Kyle Totzke, who could all make a huge leap this season.

This will be the last go around for many of the Spartans, which makes recruiting that much more important. State needs to replace not only five guys from last year’s Nationals roster, but also a multitude of players from this year’s team. Keeping the continuity of the same Captain for a second year in Sam Hiller, who is trying to stay the course set up by former Captain Ian Childs, but adding two new Assistant Captains in Zach Bauer and Kevin Miller could help the Spartans tremendously.

The chief competitors to Michigan State winning a title this year will be Grand Valley, James Madison, Kentucky, and Western Kentucky. All four of those schools return plenty of players, including their best players from last year. Grand Valley is always an elite team, and was one player short in overtime of making the Finals at Nationals 2012. Captain Mark Trippiedi and Assistant Captain Dylan Fettig are two of the best players in the league, and the Lakers have always been a thorn in MSU’s side. If State is going to win the MDC and Nationals, they’ll have to take down a fierce GVSU squad. Kentucky was league runner-up last season, the first time one of the league finalists had not been from Michigan in the past four seasons. They return the vast majority of their roster, including Wes Hopkins, the hardest thrower in the league. The Wildcats will also have the advantage of playing Nationals 2013 at home, and they play MSU early on in the season, making for an interesting first tournament for the Spartans. James Madison beat MSU 2-1 at Nationals 2012 in their first meeting, and State would love to get some payback. However, JMU will undoubtably get better after their first season, so the Spartans will have to improve as well to knock them off. Western Kentucky also returns most of their players, and while they have a new Captain in Alex Sorrells, former Captain, and possibly best Hilltopper ever, Felix Perrone will be back. WKU barely missed upsetting MSU in the Sweet Sixteen at Nationals 2012, and each year they seem to be getting closer and closer to knocking off a Michigan school. As always, MSU will have to deal with Central Michigan and Saginaw Valley, although those schools have lost a lot of players after last season, and other schools they’ll compete against include Depaul, Moody Bible, Western Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio State, Kent State and Maryland.

Michigan State Celebrating 10th Season of Spartan Dodgeball

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After being founded by Aleks Bomis in 2003, the Michigan State Club Dodgeball team will play in it’s 10th season of competitive dodgeball this season. One of the founding members of the National College Dodgeball Association, the Spartans have had plenty of history and memorable games. This season we’ll try and do as much as we can to celebrate 10 great seasons of Spartan Dodgeball.

 

 

Spartans Add First Tournament Of 2012-2013 Season

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Michigan State has added their first matches of the 2012-2013 season, going to Ohio State for a match up with four other elite programs on October 7th. Including the Spartans and Buckeyes, two traditional powerhouses, the tournament will include the defending National Champion Saginaw Valley State Cardinals, National Tournament runner up Kentucky, and the National Tournament top seed Kent State. The tournament will be a loaded field, and State can expect to get 3-4 matches in.

Interested In Playing?

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If you’re interested in playing for the MSU Club Dodgeball Team, feel free to contact captain Sam Hiller ( hillers1@msu.edu ). Also feel free to join the Michigan State Club Dodgeball Team Recruiting Class of 2012 group on facebook!

The Michigan State Club Dodgeball Team is a competitive, co-ed, team that travels to other schools across the country to play other schools. We’ve gone to the National College Dodgeball Association National Quarterfinals four straight seasons, and have been to the Semifinals twice.

 

Paul, Malnor Make All NCDA Team

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Junior Eric Paul and Senior Andy Malnor were among the 15 players named to the All NCDA Team this season for their performances at Nationals. They helped lead the Spartans to the quarterfinals where they dropped a nearly miraculous comeback against eventual National Champion Saginaw Valley. Other Spartans receiving votes included  Andrew Koczara and Andy Lieblich.

MSU Dodgeball Helps Charity Tournament

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Michigan State Dodgeball sent three teams to the inaugural Veteran’s Tournament at IM Circle on MSU’s campus, where they competed with two fraternities to help homeless veterans. To compete, the Spartans brought socks, underwear, and food for the veterans. The three teams were Final Justice, Bauer Power, and Team 4 Names. After a round robin stage, in which Bauer Power went undefeated, all three dodgeball teams made the Final 4. Bauer Power overpowered Delta Sigma Phi, and Final Justice knocked off Team 4 Names. In the final, Bauer Power swept Final Justice 2-0 in a best of three battle, led by junior Kyle Totzke and junior Zach Bauer. However, the real winners were the veterans who the Spartans helped feed and clothe, and MSU looks forward to helping out next year as well.