My Dodgeball Story: Shadeed Drakeford

For our newest installment in the “My Dodgeball Story” series, we turn to Shadeed Drakeford, founder of the VCU Dodgeball Club.  Here he tells his story about the creation of the team, his experiences while being the leader of the team, and the new role he has on the team.

By: Shadeed Q. Drakeford

Introduction

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 Men’s Basketball 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. After all, who doesn’t like free food? Yet, small talk created curiosity in me, and I stumbled across a hidden gem 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 student organization. Little did I know my life would never be the same again. When I first came to VCU, there was actually a very big showing for people who wanted to play. Back then, we exclusively played what we called “medic” dodgeball against other students and it would bring in large crowds of people. But over 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. Once I made the club in those later years, the purpose of the club was to create some stability and a strong perception of the sport around VCU, so that we would have some gym time every week. For anyone who has ever attended VCU, dodgeball time was always cut short on a weekly basis due to soccer, and never really got the respect it deserved compared to the other sports.

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Rundown of the Ohio Teams

This seems to be a great season for Ohio dodgeballers, Ohio University is playing the best they have ever played, Kent State and Bowling Green State are reclaiming their former glory, and The University of Akron has become a force on the court and can hang with most teams. Ohio dodgeball is becoming so competitive that it’s hard to predict the ODC this season. Now, I apologize in advance to OSU and Baldwin Wallace because I don’t know how your teams have been this season, because I have not played you, and this article is about my observations from playing these teams, as well as each Ohio Captains’ opinions about their respective team. Continue reading “Rundown of the Ohio Teams”

Team Spotlight: Kent State

After a long hiatus, we are back to our Team Spotlight series.  We will be covering the Golden Flashes of Kent State, as they prepare for their tournament this weekend at the University of Kentucky.  I had the pleasure of interviewing current captain Cassie Weaver, as she goes into depth about her team and what to expect from them in the coming semester.

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Kentucky Invite Preview

By Zach Parise (UK)

Dodgeball is back y’all. Finally the Kentucky and Ohio regions get a piece of the action in what looks to be one of the most exciting semesters in recent NCDA history. UK hosts Western Kentucky University, Kent State University, and Ohio University this weekend. This tournament has a lot to offer for all five teams. Kent State and Western can break out of the middle of the pack, OU can get some good experience and pick up some quality wins, and UK seeks to continue the successful season thus far. Here we will look into each team and what to expect come Saturday.

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Policy Proposal – Senior Eligibility for Nationals

Policy proposal by Jeff Starr

Seniors graduating in the winter semester (or first or second quarter for schools on quarters) are eligible to play at nationals.

Rationale: NCAA does it, nice for guys to get one more nationals, best competition at nationals

Side note: this will not be personally affecting me

Public Service Announcement

There are 75 days until Nationals. More importantly, there are 68 days until the week before Nationals. Many of you (not all) know the week before Nationals as the only time throughout the year you actively care about the rule book. The week before Nationals has a long and storied history as the week people freak out and suggest a bunch of new rules. It would be great if rule proposals could be brought up and discussed before this infamous week. So if you have an idea for a new rule or rule change, please begin to bring it up and we can discuss it prior to the week before Nationals. That is all.

 

~(The following has been included per the request of Zigmas Maloni)~

Deadline for Rulebook and Policy Proposals: 2017-04-01
Submission: Post in Facecool Captains’ Club or Email to the League (ncdadodgeball@gmail.com)
Criteria: Rulebook stuff is a rule proposal. Policy stuff is everything else. The Exec Board will sort it out. Additionally, there are no limits to the amount of proposals that can be submitted per team.

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Alumni Appreciation- UWP

 

Alumni Appreciation- Founder of UWP Dodgeball

As you may know, January is alumni appreciation month and I thought it would be fitting to write about how Platteville’s club got started.  Our club started over ten years ago and I’m so happy that it did. I have met a lot of amazing people and made a lot of great friends because of it.  To help tell how the club got started we talked to the founder of the club: Scott Skelly. Continue reading “Alumni Appreciation- UWP”

MSU vs. GVSU Doubleheader Recap

Today in East Lansing, two Michigan schools took part in a double header that will likely be the last Michigan v. Michigan games prior to the Michigan Dodgeball Cup (MDC).

Michigan State played host to Grand Valley in the second doubleheader of the season for these two teams.

The results from the doubleheader are as follows:

MSU def GVSU 2-1 (OT)

GVSU def MSU 3-0

Here are my picks for the most notable players from today’s matches:

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Penn State Starts Year Strong

A little overdue, but Penn State came out the big winners in one of the two opening tournaments of the Spring 2017 season.  To recap, PSU finished 3-0, followed by VCU who went 2-1, Ohio who went 1-2-1, and Akron who finished the weekend 0-3.  It was a very competitive tournament, and each game could have gone either way.  Below are some of the takeaways from each team’s performances.

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Guess Who’s Back? Doubleheader Preview

The two top ranked teams in the NCDA square off in East Lansing this Saturday for a doubleheader showdown. Currently, GVSU leads the season series 2-1 (we don’t need to talk about the all-time series lead, just go read Kevin Bailey’s most recent article if you want to witness the bloodbath). This will likely be the only time any Michigan schools face off this semester before the Michigan Dodgeball Cup, so a strong performance Saturday for either team could make them a strong favorite to take home the cup on February 19th. Here’s a preview of the two teams and some predictions for who will come out victorious.

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Top 5 Players I’ve Ever Gone Against

Much like the articles for The Players’ Tribune where current and former players compile a list of the best people they’ve ever gone against, it seemed like an appropriate time to make a spot where people can list the best players they’ve ever gone against.

For me there are a few layers to the criteria in my list: do they have a good arm, are they a good catcher, blocker, do they have a knack for being one of the last people in a match, and how frustrating is it to go up against them? I’m also trying to base my list against people who I’ve had direct interaction with while on the court. So if I played someone, but we stayed on the opposite side of the court most of the time from each other I may exclude their name. Former teammates were also excluded since I technically played against them.

I’m sure several people will have an opportunity to read this, and I implore all of you to include your list in the comments if given a chance. Especially Jon Shaw and Wes Peters, I know you two guys read practically everything on this site. Continue reading “Top 5 Players I’ve Ever Gone Against”

NCDA Matchups 2010-Present: A Closer Look

NCDA President Felix Perrone recently provided me with an interesting set of data.  He compiled the records for each team in the league against each of the opponents that they have played from fall of 2010 (when the NCDA’s official records begin) to present day.  Note, there are game results available prior to 2010, but not all scores were accurately recorded until that fall of 2010, so the “official” records begin then.  Feel free to visit the “Standings” tab on this website and explore for yourself.

Anyway, listed below are the top 50 ‘win totals’ for one team over a single opponent.  Basically these are all the matchups where one team has at least 6 wins over their opponent.

Keep in mind this is only from 2010 to present.  Obviously I would like to point out that while GVSU is 29-3 over MSU since 2010, the actual all-time series total is 43-3!  For those of you that can’t do math, this means GV had a 14-0 record over MSU prior to 2010 when official records began.  So, while examining the stats, be cognizant of the fact that other matchup totals may be off a bit due to the fact that this is 2010-present.

I will give the rest of my thoughts below the table:

Continue reading “NCDA Matchups 2010-Present: A Closer Look”

BOTM: 2016 December

December Baller of the Month- Brian Hymel (DePaul)

It gives me great pleasure to announce Brian Hymel as the December Baller of the Month.  He is an excellent player and one that you should never throw at alone, as many other teams who have played against him know.  Not only is he a great catcher, but he also has strong arm that you have to watch out for.  He is definitely a top 10 player in the league and this semester many teams will see why.  Check out the conversation below that I had with Brian.   Continue reading “BOTM: 2016 December”