This Saturday, February 23, 2019, marks one of the most coveted tournaments of the semester. No, it is not the Ohio Dodgeball Cup or the Beast, it is the annual Zanderthon Throw-Down, the fourth of its kind. It will be played at the Williams Fieldhouse ( 350 Jay St Platteville, Wisconsin 53818).
The teams in attendance will be your two favorites from the Midway Conference: University of Wisconsin Platteville (UWP) and DePaul. The other team in attendance and making the long trip up to the great state of Wisconsin is Northwestern State University of Louisiana (NSULA). This will be the first team outside the Midway to play in a tournament hosted by Platteville and we are excited to have them.
Also, UWP has an alumni team playing, but as we have said before they are washed up and no one is scared of them, especially Matt Bautch (very weak arm)! Let’s take a look at the schedule for the day:
Gonzalez Exchanges (rolling):
8:30 UWP (39.832) v NSU (31.313) for .148 [or 1.852 as a #6/337 upset]
9:45 DePaul (37.442) v NSU (31.165) for .372 [or 1.628 as a #18/337 upset]
9:45 UWP v Alumni
11:00 UWP (39.98) v DePaul (37.815) for .783 [or 1.217 as a #167/337 upset]
12:15 NSU v Alumni
1:30 DePaul (37.031) v NSU (30.792) for .376 [or 1.624 as a #18/337 upset]
The following are my interviews with the teams in attendance.
Erik Zander- What are your expectations for your team?
Casey Alfultis (NSULA)- Well, hopefully our team can muster our first win in at least 4 years, this has been our first season fielding a full team in my career and I think we have the talent to be a very competitive team. The more we play the more competitive we become.
Tomas Zander (UWP)- My expectations for our team is to get in all wins this weekend and I expect our team to put the following scores up. Win 4-2 against NSULA, beat DePaul 5-0, and take down the alumni 3-1. Overall, I want to see our team work more as a unit and get those cross throws off. We need to be quicker at the start and use our transition game to our advantage.
Sam Gilroy (DePaul)- My expectations for our team are to show up and play great dodgeball, just because we’re entering the season late doesn’t mean we haven’t been working hard to play the best dodgeball we can.
Brandon McCullough (UWP Alumni)– Us old farts might have some rust but after a few outs we will start rolling.
EZ- Who are people on your team that you would like to see step up?
CA- Were gonna be down an assistant captain for this tournament so I’m looking for Kameron Dukes to step up into a leadership role for this tournament, and I’m also looking for rookie Taylor Collins to really come into his own. He has recently found his way to our practices and immediately impressed with one of the strongest arms we have seen. While he’s working on fine tuning his game, when he gets settled in, he’s gonna be a top tier player. Garrett Holt showed out at his first tournament and with his strong arm and eye for strategy I expect him to have another big tournament this weekend.
TZ- I would like to see our freshman Noah Larscheid to standout. He has a very strong throw and I would like to see him use it more. I want him to attack and release his throw sooner catching other teams off guard. If he can do this he is going to be one tough player to go against.
SG- People who Id like to see step up are some of our newer players, we’re bringing a couple new faces with us and I’m excited to see what they can do.
BM– I would like to see myself step up only because I feel like if I don’t get at least a few catches I will be letting down the team.
EZ- Who are some of your players to watch out for?
CA-Finally, Caradyous Moody is the one to watch. With the surest hands we could ask for, he does plenty to help our team and has been working on his throw to continue improving his game. He is ready to make a name for himself.
TZ- I expect myself, Austin Kurey, and Ryan Roberts to be bringing the heat with our throws. In terms of catching, I would watch out for Logan Stevenson, Jacob Sebranek, and Dan Brogli aka “Dirty Dan”.
SG- Our players to watch out for are definitely Joel Luciano and Jake Binder, I’m pretty sure Joel can catch any throw you make at him and an excellent throwing arm to back it up. Jake’s got a great arm too and on the court leadership skills that really bring the whole team together.
BM-Always watch out for Nick Harding he was one of the hardest throwers and will hit you from the very back corner.
My Thoughts
I’m looking forward to Saturday as we have NSULA a team that I have never played before. They are excited and ready to experience that Wisconsin weather. They have some young guys and are looking to get them the experience to prepare for nationals. DePaul is making its first appearance of the year and hopefully this will answer a lot of questions on who this team is and how will they compete. For Platteville, this is a test for them to see what type of team they want to be heading into nationals. They need to play hard, start off fast,take care of business, and not let the other teams hang around.
Check out the Dodgeball UWP facebook page as we plan to livestream the games. This is going to be the most anticipated tournament of the weekend!