JMU hosted their 3rd annual Pumpkin Smash tournament on Sunday which featured JMU, UVA, Towson, and VCU. There were a lot of headlines going into the tournament, including JMU and UVA’s first official games of the season and Towson’s chance to knock off JMU at the top of the East Coast Region. That being said, the biggest piece to take away from the tournament is that JMU still holds control of the East Coast at the moment, but definitely not by the margins they are historically used to.
Author: Hunter Ford
Pumpkin Smash to Determine East Coast Power
Despite what the weather outside may suggest, we are starting to creep deeper and deeper into Fall, and thus deeper and deeper into the NCDA season. There are 3 big tournaments happening this weekend, Kent State’s Summer Street Slugfest, CMU’s Dodgetoberfest, and JMU’s Pumpkin Smash. Each tournament will have big implications in their respective regions, and try to provide a clearer image of the overall power structure in each region.
The Pumpkin Smash will be particularly interesting to see this year though. Traditionally, JMU has been seen as the untouchable power atop the East Coast region since their arrival into the league. However, during the Spring Semester of last season, Towson was finally able to top JMU during their home tournament 3-1. At the end of the year, JMU still finished as the highest ranked team in the East Coast, but it begs the question, are we going to see a change in power this season? Perhaps only time will tell, whether it is this weekend or even further into the future. One thing is for certain though, there will be some heavily heated and highly competitive dodgeball across the country this weekend.
Continue reading “Pumpkin Smash to Determine East Coast Power”
What We Learned In Akron
The University of Akron hosted their second annual Pink Out Tournament this Saturday which featured Akron, BGSU, Kent State, UK, OU, VCU, and WKU. Needless to say, it was an exciting tournament overall and a chance to see a ton of competitive dodgeball. After taking a 7.5 hour drive back to Richmond, it gave me time to think about the tournament, and the key takeaways from this weekend. Here are my biggest observations.
Previewing Pink Out 2
Investigating New Changes
As the saying goes, “if you’re not growing, you’re dying.” This past offseason, there were 5 total rule/policy changes and 1 bylaw change, each of which with their own positives and negatives. However, two of those changes have been both significant and controversial; Executive Board veto power on member team’s votes for rule changes, and the new “clean-blocking” rule change. Since most teams have gotten a couple games under their belts we have been able to see the effect the blocking rule has had on games, and had a chance to form reasonable opinions about the change. Alternatively, the Executive Board veto power has only been used once thus far in order to pass the newest blocking proposal. Either way, people around the league still have their opinions on the changes, and I had a chance to talk with some individuals from across the league about these changes.
Overall, views are mixed, but I want to start with some of the issues I have heard with these two new changes. Continue reading “Investigating New Changes”
Previewing the Virginia Commonwealth Cup
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) will be hosting their first tournament in program history this Saturday, October 1st. This is the second East Coast region tournament, following the Towson Throwdown hosted by Towson University on September 25th. Teams that will be attending include Towson, Maryland, and of course VCU.
What to Expect
More or less, we should expect results similar to the Towson Throwdown. The only team not playing in this tournament that was present last weekend is Stevenson, and given only a one week difference, it is hard to imagine much changing. That being said, VCU will have a unique opportunity to play on their home court, giving them a slight advantage over the two traveling teams. Continue reading “Previewing the Virginia Commonwealth Cup”
Recap: Towson Throwdown
Towson University hosted the first East Coast tournament of the season at Burdick Hall which featured Towson, Maryland, Stevenson, and VCU. For the very first tournament for every team, there were a lot of positives to take away, but also a lot of things to improve on for each team. I will be analyzing each team and highlighting some of the key takeaways from the tournament. Continue reading “Recap: Towson Throwdown”
Towson Throwdown
The East Coast region will finally see its first set of games this weekend on Sunday at Towson University. All of the teams participating are from Maryland and Virginia, which includes Towson, Maryland, Virginia Commonwealth, and Stevenson. This tournament should prove to be tightly contested, and great opener for the East Coast.
| Rank | Team | Gonzalez Rating |
| 7 | Towson | 43.841+3 |
| 12 | VCU | 39.833 |
| 13 | UMD | 39.285 |
| 20 | Stevenson | 37.626 |
Dodgeball 101: Finding Sponsors
As the saying goes, “money makes the world go ’round” and when trying to run your dodgeball empire this is no exception. One of the things that hinders teams year-in and year-out is having the finances to properly run the team. This can range from having problems with buying uniforms, being able to travel to tournaments, and even being able to buy dodgeballs for the season. So what are some solutions if your team doesn’t get the proper funding it needs? Fundraising? Raising dues? Make the rich kid on the team pay for everything?
All of those are legitimate options, but they can require a lot of time and effort, and generally aren’t fun to do. So what’s another option? Sponsorships. Almost every kid grows up dreaming of being in commercials and getting endorsements from big name companies, but now you can actually make that a reality (aside from the commercial part, probably). Here are some of my top tips for how you can get your team sponsors for the year, and ultimately ease the financial burden that comes with dodgeball. Continue reading “Dodgeball 101: Finding Sponsors”