Kent State Tournament Preview & Prediction *UPDATED*

Dodgeball is back this weekend people! Kent State, last year’s #1 seed at Nationals, is hosting the first tournament of the year, hoping to get off to a fast start. They’ve got plenty of stiff competition coming to town with the 2013 runner-up Michigan State, 2012 National Champion Saginaw Valley State, 2011 National Champion Central Michigan, and powerhouse Kentucky coming to town. For those wondering who to pick to win this tournament, I’ll be listing plenty of reasons for you to pick any of the teams above. I’ll even tell you my personal prediction. Continue reading “Kent State Tournament Preview & Prediction *UPDATED*”

2013-14 Season Preview: Ohio State

dodgeball decal

Last year was a bit of a surprise year for the Ohio State Buckeyes. The team was very young, and very inexperienced in NCDA play. Seemingly out of nowhere, the Buckeyes showed up to Sunday at nationals and gave host Kentucky the game of their lives in the second round. I recently talked with head boss man Ryan Carlton to ask him about his team, his expectations, and his dancing abilities. Continue reading “2013-14 Season Preview: Ohio State”

2013-2014 Season Preview: Saginaw Valley State University

Many people know him as the former head captain of Saginaw Valley. If you frequent the forums, you know him as one of the NCDA’s Gods. Those close to him simply just call him Spencer. His playing days may be over at this point, but Spencer Jardine’s role with SVSU is vastly undiminished. We sat down to discuss the past and future of SVSU Dodgeball and the league as a whole. He also reassured me that there are no hard feelings about DePaul’s default win over SVSU at Nationals 2013. Trust me, if you didn’t know about this man’s passion for his team and the sport before….you will. Continue reading “2013-2014 Season Preview: Saginaw Valley State University”

2013-2014 Season Preview: Michigan State University

Few teams around the league can say that they are as excited to kickoff the 2013 season as Michigan State. They ended last season at Nationals’ as the runner-up to 5x NCDA Champion Grand Valley State University. While last season was widely considered to be their most successful season, captain Mike Van Ermen put everyone on notice that second place just isn’t good enough anymore. From here on out, it’s “championship or bust.” Continue reading “2013-2014 Season Preview: Michigan State University”

AJP: Sept 2013 Alumni Podcast

Here’s another Average Joes’ Podcast, hosted by the Aluminati. Always good to have them contributing, especially when its a fantastically put together production which likely blows away the vanilla AJPs. Here’s a couple talking points they cover.  Continue reading “AJP: Sept 2013 Alumni Podcast”

Play

The NCDA at the NDL’s World Dodgeball Championship

Last month, we had six current and former NCDA players join together to form a team to participate at the NDL’s World Dodgeball Championship in Las Vegas. Western Kentucky’s Felix Perrone helped spearhead the formation of the team by inviting players from his own school and from other schools around the league. He was joined by Evan Bemus (WKU), Brett Rice (WKU), Camden Fullmer (Kent St.), Dan Shackelford (Kent St.), and Mike McCarthy (CMU). Felix recounted his experience in Vegas, as well as broke down the different rules that the NDL plays by, in an excerpt he titled “How I Spent My Summer Vacation.” Continue reading “The NCDA at the NDL’s World Dodgeball Championship”

2013-2014 Season Preview: Moody Bible Institute Archers

The entire league knows about the DePaul teams that come out of Chicago. However, people need not forget that there is another NCDA team in Chicago. The Moody Bible Institute Archers were founded and played their first NCDA match in the 2010-2011 season. Under the leadership of alumnus Chad Schlundt and Jake Ochoa, the Archers became one of the more competitive teams coming out of the Illinois region on a yearly basis. Last year, Moody was one of the few active NCDA teams to miss Nationals. However, they were allowed to have some of their players comprise the “miscellaneous team” along with other teams that missed. This year captain Jake Ochoa and the Moody Archers have no intentions of missing Nationals, or any other chances to be on the court. Continue reading “2013-2014 Season Preview: Moody Bible Institute Archers”

2013-14 Season Preview: Kent State

250654_10151520497283488_1238428661_n After spending the majority of the 2012-13 season ranked #1 in the nation, Kent State made it all the way to the national semifinals before being ousted by national runner-up Michigan State. The Golden Flashes played a plethora of regular season matches, reaching a total of 28 before the national tournament in Kentucky. For those wondering, the next closest was James Madison at 18. Recently, I sat down with the big boss man of Kent State, Dan Shackelford to talk about last year, the summer, what he expects out of this year, and their new promotional video for this upcoming year. Continue reading “2013-14 Season Preview: Kent State”

2013-14 Season Preview: University of Kentucky

The 2012-13 Season ended poorly for the Kentucky Wildcats last year, losing in the semifinals to Grand Valley. After spending most of the season ranked #2 in the nation, expectations had been high, but a grueling match against Ohio State in the quarterfinals of the elimination match drained Kentucky’s players for the next match. Recently, Kentucky’s new captain, Jon Firquin, sat down to give me his thoughts on nationals, and what he expects to happen this year.

Continue reading “2013-14 Season Preview: University of Kentucky”

2013-2014 Season Preview: DePaul Dodgeball Society

The DePaul Dodgeball Society is one of the eldest teams in the NCDA. Since being founded in 2000, their campaign has always been to show the league why they’re “undefeated.” Finishing with an overall record of 3-8-0 (#12 in the standings) last season, DePaul will look to build on that with more victories this season while maintaining the essence of what makes this team unique. I sat down with a former teammate and current DePaul co-captain to discuss the upcoming season and have a few laughs about the club. Continue reading “2013-2014 Season Preview: DePaul Dodgeball Society”

JMU Dodgeball 2013-14 Season Preview

In their second year as an NCDA member, the JMU Dukes proved that they are far from a one-hit wonder. Playing in and travelling to a plethora of matches, they did not just establish themselves as the top team in the East Coast, but across the entire league. I recently talked with the clubs new president Ben Sizemore to ask him about what to expect in the team’s future, topics about their past, and a few other items.

Continue reading “JMU Dodgeball 2013-14 Season Preview”

Season Preview: Grand Valley State University

The Grand Valley State Lakers went 16-2 last year en route to their National Championship. The NCDA hasn’t had a repeat champion since 2009-2010 GVSU. This year Grand Valley State looks to repeat again while they overcome a change of leadership, and strong NCDA competition.

Continue reading “Season Preview: Grand Valley State University”

Continuing Success: GVSU in the Ultimate Dodgeball Tournament

I’m sure most of you have heard by now that Grand Valley State is a really good dodgeball team. I know, shocker right? Well, not only are they dominant in the league, but they can go outside of the NCDA and continue their domination. Continue reading “Continuing Success: GVSU in the Ultimate Dodgeball Tournament”

BOTM: 2013 August

Wes Peters [CMU #27-C]

Wes has done a lot of things throughout his career at Central Michigan. He started off as a relative nobody his first season, a little overshadowed by the superstars that CMU had. Still, he won a NCDA National Championship that year at Nationals 2011. Central was the favorite heading into the 2011-2012 season, and despite not playing many games that year, teams started talking about CMU’s amazing catchers in Wes Peters and Brett Hadwin. The two were seemingly tied together with every discussion of great catchers in the league, but they both were proving to become top tier catchers. Wes tore his ACL in the spring of 2012, but not only played, but played well, on one leg at Nationals 2012.  Continue reading “BOTM: 2013 August”

NCDAers Team Up For the Dodgeball World Championships

The National Dodgeball League is hosting the 2013 Dodgeball World Championship in Las Vegas, NV. This is the 10th tournament, and it will feature numerous individual tournaments within the Championship. It also will feature the entire regular season of the NDL. The NDL has a different ruleset than the NCDA, but it’s not too different to the point where the NCDAers will be fish out of water when they play.

Continue reading “NCDAers Team Up For the Dodgeball World Championships”