The Baller of the Month award is an award given monthly to a player voted on by their teammates to recognize all the hard work they have put into the team throughout the month. September’s winner is Ian Westrick! Here are his responses to some brief interview questions.
Q: What are your thoughts on winning this award?
A: It feels good to pick up where I left off last year. Trying to be the best I can on and off the court as a member of the team.
Q: How do you think our first tournament went?
A: I feel like it went pretty well. It was good to see the rookies playing as well as they were.
Q: What team skills does the team need more work on?
A: We need to work on our court communication a lot more. While we played well, it could have been even better. It will come as the year progresses, but it would be nice to see a lot of it at UNL.
Q: What is a personal dodgeball goal you want to focus on?
A: I want to focus on my growth as a player. I want to try and improve every part of my game and grow more as a leader on the court.
Q: Do you have any advice for the rookies?
A: To just keep pushing themselves. They all got good potential.
Congrats again to Ian Westrick! Your hard work and dedication shows and is paying off!
The Rookie of the Month award is an award given monthly to a player voted on by their teammates to recognize all the hard work they have put into the team throughout the month. September’s winner is Anna Behnke! She is a currently pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering and expects to graduate in 2029. Here are his responses to some brief interview questions.
Q: How do you feel about winning this award?
A: It feels good to start out my dodgeball career strong, seeing I could have a future on this team.
Q: How has this award impacted your interest in Dodgeball?
A: I am more driven to continue learning about the sport and better my skills.
Q: What did you think of your first tournament?
A: I think the first tournament went okay, there is a lot to learn and practice. Could have gone worse.
Q: What skills do you hope to improve on for future tournaments?
A: I mainly want to work on my throwing accuracy, but continuing working on my blocking, and communication.
Q: Where do you see yourself on the team going forward?
A: I hope to be a part of the starting 12 in the future.
Congrats again to Anna Behnke for winning this award! We can’t wait to see how much you improve throughout the season!
This tournament was a great start to our season. We played in two games that helped us get back into the NCDA format and gave our 6 rookies a chance to really learn the game.
Veterans – We worked well together and moved as one throughout the tournament. Our communication was good but can always use improvement. I was very impressed with some of our teams’ veterans stepping up when needed and taking on the captain role when our captains couldn’t. Overall, each veteran did a good job of teaching our rookies necessary skills and how to handle certain situations during the middle of a game.
Rookies – For barely getting to practice inside all the rookies did a good job handling the transition from mostly practicing outside. I was also impressed with the amount they seemed to focus on eye contact and connecting/communicating with their teammates. They were all very confident for it being their first tournament and caught on to the flow of the game very quick. Even when there was frustration after getting out, they communicated with veterans on ways to improve or fix their mistakes. In the end the rookies were able to secure multiple catches and even a few outs.
Overall, for the first tournament of the year, the team did well and learned a lot. It helped us get back to working together and got rid of any nerves we may have had.
Captains Thoughts
What are your thoughts on how our team played? What is something we did well and what do we need to work on?
Dylan Fabry: I think our team did alright for the first tournament of the season. We were moving as a team and the rookies are learning fast. We just need to work on the basics and shake off the rust from summer break.
Hollie Wheeler: I was very proud of how fast our rookies picked up on our play style. The veterans got back into the swing of things while being good role models for the rookies to learn by example. With a few more weeks of practice, the rookies will be more caught up to speed about what our play calls mean, how to cover for our teammates, applying pressure, team throws, and squaring up to secure catches. Our team is looking very promising this year and I’m excited to see what they do at our next tournament. Something we did well was playing as a unit and making sure to reset the clock. We were able to retrieve the center balls effectively, especially when the rookies ran for them. We can work on our communication between the veterans and rookies. We need to guide the rookies and explain why we are doing what we’re doing. The veterans tend to talk to each other more, but as the year goes on, they’ll talk to the new players more and help them out on the court. I believe we are headed in the right direction as a club, and it will be interesting to see how the year progresses.
Rookies Thoughts
What did you think of your first tournament? What is something you learned?
Jamie Damm: I loved our first tournament, there was an amazing and encouraging environment which allowed me to learn a few more of the fundamentals of the game that we hadn’t covered yet in practice but also gain experience in a real game. I learned things like how the stop clock works, how to do a team throw, and when to throw vs. when to block for someone in a game.
Maisie Montemurno: I think it went well. It was amazing to see all the rookies work really well. Even though there were some things that we still didn’t know we all were able to adapt to it. It was also amazing to see the vets celebrate the things we did well.
