As time grows closer to Nationals, let’s take a step back and look at all the Central Region schools and their season so far. The following teams are: University of Nebraska Lincoln, University of Wisconsin Platteville, Concordia University Wisconsin, and University of Kentucky. We asked respondents from each school these questions about how they felt their season has gone and general knowledge about their clubs.
1. Who is your OT6? (please include if they are a captain, rookie, etc).
2. Anything notable go well for you at these tournaments? Anything you need to improve on?
3. Any changes for your team heading into the spring semester?
4. Which tournament are you most excited for this spring?
5. What team would you most like to play?
6. Do you have any rising players on your team you’d like to give a shoutout?
7. How will your team do this spring?
8. Please list 3 players you think should be on AA and womens AA (not including your team).
9. Please list 1 rookie youve been impressed by (not including your team).
10. Please give us your thoughts on 1 team ranked above you and 1 team ranked below you.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln (5-0)-Colby Chohrach.
OT6- Colby Chohrach, Caleb Fowler (Captain), Noah Willey, Tre Sumrall (President) Tommy Eggert (Captain), Wyatt Sewell.
2. We played well in all our matches and are 5-0 on the season. Looking to improve overall teamwork and grow this semester.
3. Just hungry to play.
4. WAR and Nationals.
5. OSU.
6. Really proud of 3 varsity rookies Brad Dytrych, Nour Uman and Cody Hora. Lots of work ethic and talent.
7. We’re ready to prove that we’re a Finals contender, Final Four AT LEAST.
8. Elly Schipfer, Nicole Cutich, Alexis Schultz, Alec Deen, Barry Butler, Ethan Lehmkuhl.
9. Nick Kemer (OSU)
10. I think that MSU is untouchable but I think that the rankings 2-7 are really a toss up. Any given team in the 2-7 spot could beat any other team in that same range and that’s what’s so exciting about this season.
University of Wisconsin-Platteville (7-7)-UWP Captains.
OT6- Caleb Newell (C), Tomas Zander (C), Austin Kurey (C), Eli Huntley, Jordyn Vanevenhoven, Jalen Sims.
2. Our club is starting to figure out its identity. We did a great job at team throwing and pushing teams back fast, which has helped us finish off points compared to last year. Our team has done an excellent job of keeping our composure when down numbers. As a team, we were able to turn points around that started out poorly. Although, we have a strong veteran presence up front, the back half is very young and inexperienced. That being said, we need to continue to discipline ourselves to work on the fundamentals to avoid those easy outs and keep working on court awareness to watch for those cross throws.
3. The biggest changes going into this semester will be the loss of Noah Larscheid and Annie Larson. Noah was one of our harder throwers and was key to many of our victories. Annie was great at supporting us on the court during points and even better at the end of them when we needed a clutch catch. We will have to fill those shoes.
4. We were excitied for the GVSU tournament. The courts are nice to play on and the drive is short for our standards. The idea of playing the top teams is exciting as we love the challenge and like to have the opportunity to show that we can compete and prove that to ourselves.
5. For us, we would like to play against JMU as we don’t get to see too many east coast teams and JMU is one we have never played. It would be fun to see their style.
6. Jordyn Vanevenhoven #60 is our player on the rise. He’s a senior, whom because of covid and an internship did not play as much dodgeball as he would have liked. Lately, he has been going to extra practices with Coach Erik to work on his throwing and it is definitely paying off. He may not be the one that gets all the outs, but he is the one that leads the charge in transition and boosts our young players confidence. He always seems to get a big time catch when we need it most. Keep it up Jordyn!
7. Our squad plans to make even bigger waves then we did in the fall and show we aren’t afraid to face anyone. Swing the ax!
8. Cole Machiela (SVSU), Clay Egleston (Akron), and Evan Brown (BGSU). Sky Thornsberry (CSU), Elly Schipfer (Miami), and Vanessa Hudson (Kent).
9. Connor Knott of CUW has impressed us the most. It is tough being a rookie in the league and it is even tougher leading a team as a rookie. On top of that, it is a new team and he has been able to get them out to two tournaments. He is a very solid thrower and he we will lead his team to a victory this semester.
10. Akron is a solid team. Although, we beat them in September, they are a lot tougher team now then they were then. Akron came out with some impressive victories at the Pink Out. Leading the charge for them is Clay Egleston, PJ Antalek, and Matt Young. If these guys have you backed up on your backline, your’re in trouble. On top of that, they are catching very well. Don’t be surprised if they make a run for that Ohio Dodgeball Cup. Western Michigan is an impressive team with how relatively new they are to the league. This is a team with a bunch of energetic players. We have been impressed with their willingness to travel, especially being a younger team and it has helped them get better. When UWP played them at the Pioneer Classic, they made it tough on us. Every point was a battle and going forward they are going to surprise some teams. Good luck this semester WMU!
University of Kentucky (0-6)-David Mead.
OT6. OT6 are in the air but you will most likely see myself (captain), Skye Marvin (captain), JohnPat Phillips (recruit), and Robert Bennett (returner) on the court- as well as whoever we see showing out for the day!
2+3. Learning from our tournaments, there is a lot of work we have to put in on the court to field a full team and show our strength. Working on catches and when to rush and when to throw have been some of our top priorities this semester. Also, recruiting to keep numbers for the club is important for us as well.
4. This may be cliché but I am most excited to see where we are when Nationals comes around. Rebuilding a whole team has been a group effort and everyone seems to be doing their part!
5. I’d love to see us play the teams out west, including WMU, UWP, UNL and CUW. If travel wasn’t such an issue, we would be out that way in a heartbeat.
6. I’ve seen tremendous growth in many of our returning and new members. Robert Bennett has shown his tenacity to keep people on the court in practice time after time. JohnPat Phillips, Dane Coleman, and Caela Coleman are all recruits from this year and can all be playmakers when the time is right.
7. As a rebounding team, everytime we step on the court is time we have to improve. Most of us on the team has seen the Dodgeball movie so if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball… but why not catch it instead.
8. Vanessa Hudson, Danielle Kubbe, Elly Schipfer.
9-11. I havent seen much of the other teams in action so I couldn’t give a confident answer for these. That being said, I’d love to see how these new teams integrate into the league and the impact they can make around the regions!
Concordia University Wisconsin (0-6)-Connor Knott.
OT6- Tre Lucas, Connor Knott, Robert Little, Carson Wolford, Paul Brock, Rainer Ratay.
2. We improved a lot from our first tournament to our second. We need to improve on teamwork and the ability to catch.
3. We are losing some good players to spring sports but are gaining some new faces who couldn’t compete because of fall sports.
4. I honestly don’t know. We are just looking forward to every tournament where we can improve.
5. We would like to play UIUC as they’re another brand new team this year. Of course we like playing established teams with good players but we’d like to see how we match up against a school that is new like us.
6. Tré Lucas is a great all around player. Paul Brock is an exceptional blocker and leader. Carson Wolford is an athletic and talented captain.
7. To be honest, all this team wants is to taste a victory, we have worked so hard. To answer your question- We are going to play like we have nothing to lose and we will do well.
8. Caleb Newell (UWP), Matt Barnett (WMU), Vanessa Hudon (Kent), Sky Thornsberry (CSU).
9. N/A
10. Pretty much every non b team is ranked above us. I think we are more athletic than most teams in the NCDA. Even including a lot of the teams in the top 10. If we can learn to play the game better and smarter, we will be a hard team to beat for a lot of the teams ranked above us. Right now, every team ranked above us makes sense, we haven’t proved too much yet, but we are hoping to this semster.