This year’s Ohio Dodgeball Cup was nothing short of exciting this past weekend. I don’t believe that anyone could have predicted that outcome. Congratulations are in order for the Ohio Bobcats, your 2017 Ohio Dodgeball Cup Champions! I have to be honest, I thought it would be a long time before I would ever say that! But they did it, and they deserved it.

Results

OSU Def. Kent 2-0

Ohio Def. BGSU 2-1

CSU Def. MC 5-0 (Inducting)

Ohio Def. Kent 3-2 (OT)

OSU Def. Akron 5-0

BW Def. Miami 5-4

BGSU Def. Akron 3-1

Miami Def. MC 4-0

BW Def. CSU 5-1

BGSU Def. OSU 3-2 (OT)

Akron Def. Miami 6-1

Kent Def. MC 6-0

Miami Def. CSU 2-1

Ohio Def. Bw 5-1 (CHAMPIONSHIP)

Records

Ohio 3-0

BW 2-1

OSU 2-1

BGSU 2-1

Miami 2-2

Akron 1-2

Kent 1-2

CSU 1-2

MC 0-3

This tournament will surly shake up the rankings a bit with Ohio’s grand showing coming in as one of the lower ranked teams and beating all three teams who are above them in the Gonzalez Ranks, two of which they have never beat, so lets talk about the champs.

All I can say is wow, and boy did they earn this one. I don’t think anyone but OU thought that they were going to go out there and do what they did. As a rival school, I wish that I could have played them that day to try to slow their roll, but as a friend to their team, I couldn’t be more proud. This is the same team that went 0-29 last season and being at the bottom of the ranks. Now, expect to see a meteoric rise in the ranks that this team has never seen before. They did the unthinkable and swept the cup beating Bowling green and Baldwin Wallace, not to mention, they broke their overtime curse against a very talented Kent State! These guys are on cloud nine right now and who can blame them! This was an entirely different OU than before, it seems that they lit a fire under their collective asses and got work done. Captain Caleb Arnold had this to say,

“All I have to say is this was the most intense tournament I had been to in my three years of dodgeball. It all could’ve gone such a different way. Had we lost to Bowling Green, they would be Champs. Had Bowling Green lost to OSU, us and OSU would’ve had an overtime showdown. One little change could’ve provided a completely different outcome on the day and I love it.” 

Caleb also set a record in the NCDA by winning the ODC at two different institutions, BGSU and Ohio! The only other player to do so, Adam Hynes also of OU and formerly BGSU also gave me a statement,

“Planning the ODC was extremely challenging personally but, to see everyone from Ohio come in and play was amazing. I want to thank everyone who came to play and watch. More importantly, watching my team win the cup as such a young team is a feeling I won’t ever forget. Proud to be apart of the NCDA.”  

So congrats Ohio University, I hope you all continue this momentum the rest of the season.

It was good to see BW live and in action again, after having some troubles getting organized this season, it seems that it is behind them. They also had a good showing at the ODC going 2-1 with only losing to Ohio in the Championship game. They still have some room to grow here because while they had some easy matches against Marietta and Cleveland, they came close to Miami with only winning by a point. However, a win is a win and these guys went to the Championship, falling to the momentous Ohio University. I look forward to playing these guys in the future!

I have only played OSU once in my career and they were extremely impressive. That statement still holds true. Today, they may have stumbled a bit this season, but with the several power players that they currently have at their disposal, I wouldn’t take this team lightly. While it may be a slower year for the Buckeyes than we’ve seen recently, they are still a great team full of great players and leadership in Jeff Starr, (Do people still think he’s overrated, because they should go 1v1 and see for themselves). These guys came to play and unfortunately for them, fell to BGSU in overtime. Don’t let that fool you though, BG is also a team not to take lightly.

Having only lost to the champs on Saturday, I would call their trip to Newark pretty successful. They had a very impressive day. Beating OSU is no easy feat, and this team pulled it off in OT. They had many players who had a great impact on their play, Veterans Tyler Broyles and Tyrell Smith showed the league that they still got it. Younger brother Nick broyles showed us that dodgeball skillz run in the family, and clutch player Tyler Wickham showed that he can play almost as well as he can talk trash. All joking aside, BG is a real threat this year and only continues to improve, I look forward to see how they play against some upper tier teams.

Miami had a great tournament as well, getting their first W of the season against Marietta, and another close win against Cleveland. They also took BW to the limit and scored a point on the more experienced Akron Zips. Kyle Shaw may have turned some heads with his controversial unfiltered article, but he turned some heads at the tournament as well. His team has the makings of a future ODC championship squad. They need to hit up some more tournaments and play some top tier teams to further build their skills, but overall, they impress me, and they are some fun people to play against.

The Akron Dodgeball club had an underwhelming tournament performance this past weekend, having only been able to wrangle 11 players to compete at the cup. Unfortunately, Their top six couldn’t hold out against BGSU and OSU. However, their more inexperienced players did have their moments to shine, and are showing improvement. Hopefully they can get it together in time for their two-day dodgeball extravaganza titled “The War.” Their veteran players played well, with great help from Captains Adam Pfeifer and Colby Briceland paired with great performances by the always consistent Josh Lyons and Joey Stacks. This team just can’t seem to close a point, either losing ball control or higher numbers. They need to do something in order to compete with the growing talent of the other Ohio teams.

Kent State also had an unfortunate day as they fell to both OSU and OU, while still putting on a great showing against Marietta. While yes, they were down a couple players, the age-old excuse unfortunately doesn’t matter. They still had a close game with OSU, even with an odd time stipulation added to their match, the scores doesn’t accurately show how they performed that day. Hopefully this was just a bump on the road to Nationals for the Golden Flashes. Kent State is already masterminding a new game-plan for the rest of the season, and I am excited to see how well they turn around from this. Remember, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”-Kanye West*

*Yes, I know he didn’t create this saying*

Welcome Cleveland State! and congratulations on a victory in your inducting match! It really is a great thing how this league is expanding! (Way to go Leski). I very much look forward to playing this young team and watching their progression in the league in the following seasons. While they did only score one victory for the day, it was a great showing of the talent and leadership that this team possess with Alan Wardeiner and Matt Klembara at the helm of the vikings, the sky is the limit for these young players.

Another warm welcome goes out to Marietta College! Saturday saw the birth of two new groups and that is very exciting for the league. Though this team is still looking for their first win, I expect great things from them, being so close to Ohio University, they are in good hands. Under Captain Tom Farish, this team can do wonderful things if they keep on truckin’ and remember that progress doesn’t happen overnight. Hopefully they can make it to more tournaments and get some experience before Nationals this year. In the wise words of many captains, trust the process.