Even though the year is halfway through, it feels as if UWP Dodgeball is just starting to pick up. Everyone is still practicing just as hard and we all seem to be focused on the end goal, which is to compete at nationals. This is something that left a sour taste in our mouths last year as we lost in the first round. As such, we’ve worked hard the past few months to rebuild the team and get to a higher level. This process can be broken down into three phases: recruit, train, and compete.
As is with every Fall semester, we focus heavily on replacing those who have graduated last Spring. Luckily, we found many rookies that were eager to play dodgeball, 7 of which have stuck around since Day 1. According to Co-Captain Tomas Zander, “The rookies were key to helping our club get better and will be going forward. Each one has worked hard putting in extra hours getting better with Coach Erik during the off-practice days. If the rookies can get rid of their hesitation, they will help UWP become an impossible team to beat because we will be one of the fastest teams in the league.”
After recruiting new players, it was necessary to train them. While dodgeball is not an overly complex game, there are technical aspects such as grip throwing, team throws, ball control, and offensive coordination that can only be taught through practice. It was great to see just how much everyone improved over such a little time. This is largely due to our focus of drills in practice and getting additional training outside of practice. In fact, this training is why we were able to come home from the Redhawk Classic with 3 wins against Akron, BGSU, and Miami.
And that leads us to competition, which will be ongoing throughout the Spring semester as well. We were fortunate enough to play in 4 tournaments last semester, but this semester we are focusing on playing a greater variety of teams. Being put against strong teams is a necessity as it highlights what we need to work on, such as team-throwing and countering.
Early on in the semester, we traveled through the corn fields in Nebraska to play none other than UNL. Going in we knew this would be tough because of how experienced of a team they are and how new ours was. UNL ended up blowing us out of the water in the first match (7-1) and won a close second game (4-3).
Austin Kurey, President of the club states, “Since our lose at UNL’s tournament, we have really driven home the fundamentals and stressed many different drills. We hope that these drills will help us come together as a team and improve. When looking to the future, we need to be a cohesive unit. If we can play as a team, and for one another, we will be a much better team overall. This will be the best course for success.”
Another notable event this Fall was our home tournament, which we went undefeated against CSU, WMU, and the newly formed team CUW. While it was great to come out with so many wins, it was even better to see so many teams at our courts. Four other teams came, which is the best turn out that we’ve seen in a long time. We hope to see a similar turnout next semester as well.
Our last tournament of the Fall semester was the Dr. Peter Broe Classic at WMU. This was an exciting tournament for us because of how many other competitive teams were there. Our first game was against SVSU, which ended up being a very intense game that went into overtime. It was close, but we managed to win with a final score of 4-3.
Our second game was against none other than MSU. Most of the guys weren’t sure what to expect going into the match since they were ranked much higher than us. First point, they throttled us. Second point though, we came back hard and scored against them; at that point everyone on the team was pumped up. It was a very fun and competitive game, but MSU ended up winning the match 5-2.
Even though it was a loss, we walked away feeling pretty good about ourselves and how we played. Treasurer Jalen Sims says, “We had a few catches by our younger guys which allowed us to get a point against MSU. With countering we did a great job picking them off as a team. MSU likes to throw at the attack line, so it’s easy to pick them off if our throws are on point.”
Last game of the tournament was against OSU, which ended up being a 2-5 loss. This was a reminder of how much more we need to train this coming semester. While the OSU game didn’t go our way, we know that we’ll be ready the next time we play them.
Overall, the attitude for the start of this Spring is optimistic, yet serious. We have come a long way since last semester, and last year to say the least, but there is definitely still some more work to be done on the courts. In recent news, UWP Dodgeball hopes to take a full squad to GVSU just 2 weeks into the Spring semester. Games will be streamed on YouTube, so stay tuned for some good ol’ fashioned dodgeball.
Roll Neers!
